PORTUGAL Law and Practice Contributed by: João G Gil Figueira, Rodrigue Devillet Lima and Catarina Andrade Miranda, GFDL Advogados
2. Fintech Business Models and Regulation in General 2.1 Predominant Business Models Portuguese fintechs are a varied group of ven - tures. Fintech verticals in Portugal include payment services, neobanks, capital raising instruments, lending platforms, bank account aggregators, personal finance apps, crowd - funding platforms and insurance providers. Established legacy players are also present in investing, developing or promoting fintechs. The largest number of players follow a business-to- business model. 2.2 Regulatory Regime There is no general provision regulating the fin - tech industry in Portugal. The applicable regula - tory framework is dispersed and depends on the client’s business model, sector and type of their/ its clientele. Despite a case-by-case assessment being imperative, it is generally possible to iden - tify the main regulatory framework that will likely apply to new fintechs: • Decree-Law No 486/99 of 13 November establishes the Portuguese Securities Code, which sets the core rules regarding securi - ties and is part of the main legal framework of Portugal’s financial sector; • Decree-Law No 298/92 of 31 December establishes the Portuguese Legal Framework of Credit Institutions and Financial Compa - nies; • Law No 102/2015 of 24 August establishes the Crowdfunding Financing Act, which closely follows the provisions set by Regula - tion (EU) 2020/1503 of the European Parlia - ment and of the Council of 7 October 2020 on European crowdfunding service providers for business, and lays down uniform require - ments for the provision of crowdfunding
services, for the organisation, authorisation and supervision of crowdfunding service providers, for the operation of crowdfund - ing platforms as well as for transparency and marketing communications about the provi - sion of crowdfunding services in the EU; • Law No 83/2017 of 18 August establishes the Combat Measures for Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Act, which serves as a general framework for all fintechs on what concerns their anti-money laundering (AML) obligations as well as the implementation of “Know Your Customer” (KYC) provisions ( “AML Act” ) • Decree-Law No 91/2018 of 12 Novem - ber establishes the Payment Services and E-money Act; • Decree-Law No 27/2023 of 28 April estab - lishes the legal framework for asset man - agement, which establishes the general framework for asset management companies and different types of collective investment organisations (including funds) ( “Asset Man- agement Regime” ) • Consumer Protection Acts also apply when dealing with consumers (including the Dis - tance and Off-Premises Law (Decree-Law No 24/2014); the E-commerce Law (Decree- Law No 7/2004); the Digital Goods, Content and Services Law (Decree-Law No 84/2021); and the General Contractual Clauses Law (Decree-Law No 446/85)); • the General Data Protection Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons regard - ing the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (GDPR), is directly applicable in Portugal; • the MiCA regulation came into effect in June 2023 and is fully enforceable in Portugal from 30 December 2024. However, the Portuguese
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