BELGIUM Law and Practice Contributed by: Joan Carette, Philippe De Prez and Thomas Derval, Simont Braun
payment services, regulating cross-border pay - ments in the same way throughout the EU. This has been transposed into Belgian law by the PI & EMI Law (in relation to the prudential regime of PIs) and the CEL (in relation to the conduct of business rules for all PSPs). In June 2023, the European Commission pub - lished proposals to improve the existing legal framework and ultimately replace it with the Third Payment Services Directive (PSD3) and the Payment Services Regulation (PSR). SEPA Belgium is part of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), a system that establishes a single set of tools and standards, making cashless cross- border payments in euros as efficient and easy as national payments. SEPA enables European businesses, consumers and governments to make and receive credit transfers, direct debit payments and card payments under the same conditions. Cross-Border Payment Regulation EU Regulation 2021/1230 of 14 July 2021 on cross-border payments in the Union requires PSPs to apply the same charges for cross- border electronic payment transactions in euros within the European Union. 6. Marketplaces, Exchanges and Trading Platforms 6.1 Permissible Trading Platforms There are essentially three main types of trading platforms: regulated markets, MTFs and OTFs. In addition, since the entry into force of MiCA, trading platforms for crypto-assets are also regulated.
MiFID II provisions pertaining to trading plat - forms have been implemented in Belgian law mainly through the Investment Services Law, which is divided into two sections, the first one covering regulated markets and the second being dedicated to MTFs and OTFs. • Regulated markets – must obtain a licence from the Minister of finance, assisted by the FSMA. This agreement is subject to many prudential requirements, such as the fitness and properness of the management and the shareholding, and the implementation of adequate organisation and control processes. • OTFs and MTFs – can only be exploited by specific licensed entities – ie, CIs, stockbrok - ing firms and market operators. In addition to the requirements applicable to their existing licence, these entities are subject to an extra layer of requirements set out in the Invest - ment Services Law. • Trading platforms for crypto-assets – can only be exploited with a MiCA Crypto-asset Service Provider (CASP) licence. 6.2 Regulation of Different Asset Classes Generally speaking, all asset classes are subject to equivalent regulatory regimes. Financial/investment instruments are covered by the Belgian implementation of MiFID II and Pro - spectus Regulation frameworks, while crypto- assets (with some exceptions) are now governed by MiCA. To help delineate the two regimes, the FSMA published a Communication on 22 November 2022 on the classification of crypto-assets as securities, investment instruments or financial instruments. In December 2024, ESMA also published guidance on the classification of
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