PORTUGAL Law and Practice Contributed by: João G Gil Figueira, Rodrigue Devillet Lima and Catarina Andrade Miranda, GFDL Advogados
tive marks a strategic step towards a more dynamic, adaptable and inclusive financial ecosystem by ena - bling companies to simulate fundraising through stock and bond issuance or venture capital investment. The simulator is available to domestic and foreign com - panies seeking access to the Portuguese capital markets. One of the main goals of Sandbox Market - 4Growth is to promote financial inclusion, encourage the creation of accessible and efficient financial ser - vices, and support the competitiveness of Portugal’s finance industry by fostering a culture of innovation and adaptability. 2.6 Jurisdiction of Regulators Four main national regulators have jurisdiction over industry participants, each with a specific field of juris - diction. • The Bank of Portugal acts as the Portuguese Central Bank and is therefore integrated into the European System of Central Banks under the European Central Bank. It is tasked with monitoring and supervising financial, payment and e-money institutions, as well as with virtual asset provider authorisations. • CMVM oversees the offerings of securities and financial asset management companies and advisory in Portugal. The competent authority is to issue an authorisation to engage in crowdfunding activities. Regarding crowdfunding, CMVM may also request technical opinions from the Bank of Portugal. • The Insurance and Pension Funds Supervisory Authority is the supervisor with jurisdiction to over - see the insurance and pension fund markets. • The National Data Protection Commission ( Comis- são Nacional de Proteção de Dados ) is the Por - tuguese public authority that supervises data processing by all public and private entities in Portugal. Participants may fall under the scope of one or more regulators depending on the nature of the project to be developed. With regard to the application of MiCAR in Portugal and as previously mentioned, Law No 69/2025 of 22 November designated the Bank of Portugal and
CMVM as the competent national authorities for the purposes of MiCA. Within this framework, the Bank of Portugal is respon - sible for the authorisation and prudential supervision of CASPs, including entities that were previously reg - istered as VASPs under the pre-MiCA regime and that benefit from the transitional regime. As regards the respective competences of the two authorities under MiCA: • Bank of Portugal is the key authority responsible for the prudential supervision and authorisation of CASPs, holding supervisory, information-gathering and prudential intervention powers and acting as the national point of contact for co-operation with the European Banking Authority (EBA); and • CMVM is the authority responsible for conduct-of- business supervision, market oversight and market abuse enforcement in the context of MiCA, exer - cising supervisory and enforcement powers from the Portuguese Securities Code and acting as the national reference authority for co-operation with the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). 2.7 No-Action Letters In Portugal, regulators such as CMVM do not typically issue “no-action” letters in the same way regulatory entities might issue them in some other jurisdictions. However, Portuguese regulators may provide informal guidance or clarifications regarding the application of existing regulations to specific cases, often through official statements or written opinions. Entities seek - ing regulatory clarification may approach the CMVM or other relevant authorities for such guidance, though these are not formally recognised as “no-action” let - ters. 2.8 Outsourcing of Regulated Functions Unregulated functions can be mostly outsourced at will. By contrast, regulated functions are required, in certain instances, to be disclosed to the competent regulator and must follow a particular set of rules. As a rule, both the nature and extent of the outsourcing must always be contractually defined and notified.
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