MALTA Law and Practice Contributed by: Ian Gauci and Cherise Abela Grech, GTG Legal
definition of crowdfunding services is aimed to accommodate different business models ena - bling a loan agreement between one or more investors and one or more project owners to be concluded through a crowdfunding platform. Loans included within the scope of the Regula - tion are those with unconditional obligations to repay an agreed amount of money to the inves - tor, whereby lending-based crowdfunding plat - forms merely facilitate the conclusion by inves - tors and the project owner of loan agreements without the crowdfunding service provider at any moment acting as a creditor of the project owner. 4.4 Syndication of Fiat Currency Loans Due to the limited adaptability of online lending in Malta, the syndication of such loans is very rare. Payment processors are licensable in Malta under the FIA. There is no prohibition on pay - ment processors creating or implementing new payment rails, or payment infrastructure gener - ally, but this is not common in practice. 5.2 Regulation of Cross-Border Payments and Remittances Cross-border payments and remittances are regulated to ensure compliance with AML and CFT standards, focusing on transparency, pre - venting money laundering, and combatting ter - rorism financing. In this regard, it is important to consider Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 on informa - tion accompanying transfers of funds and certain crypto-assets (the Transfer of Funds Regulation), 5. Payment Processors 5.1 Payment Processors’ Use of Payment Rails
which gives effect to the recommendations of the FATF on virtual assets. These rules are aimed to prevent, detect and investigate money laun - dering and terrorist financing where at least one of the CASPs involved in the transfer of crypto- assets is established in the EU. These service providers are required to accompany transfers of crypto-assets with information on the originator and the beneficiary. The information should be submitted in a secure manner and in advance of, or simultaneously or concurrently with, the transfer of crypto-assets. The provisions of the Value Added Tax (Report - ing Obligations for Payment Service Provid - ers) Regulations [S.L. 406.22] came into effect on 1 January 2024 and introduced certain new reporting requirements for PSPs (which include mainly credit institutions, e-money institutions, payment institutions and post-office giro insti - tutions), mainly concerning cross-border pay - ments originating from EU member states. PSPs with Malta as either their home member state or host member state were required to register with the Malta Tax and Customs Administration (MTCA) as an in-scope PSP for the Central Elec - tronic System of Payment information (CESOP). In-scope PSPs were required to keep sufficiently detailed information on payees and payments, and to submit certain quarterly detailed informa - tion to the Malta Commissioner for Tax and Cus - toms concerning certain cross-border payments provided in Malta. In the crypto-asset sphere, it is also important to consider DAC8 (Directive on Administrative Cooperation 8), which is an EU directive aimed at improving tax transparency and combat - ting tax evasion related to crypto-assets and digital currencies. It introduces new reporting obligations for CASPs, requiring them to share information with tax authorities about trans -
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