PORTUGAL Law and Practice Contributed by: João G Gil Figueira, Rodrigue Devillet Lima and Catarina Andrade Miranda, GFDL Advogados
ance of all EU payment accounts reachable through SEPA mandates. Non-regulatory rules regarding cross-border payments and currency remittance usually stem from AML and anti-tax fraud concerns, with mandatory documenting and reporting required. Portugal transposed Directive (EU) 2020/284 (regarding introducing certain requirements for payment service providers), imposing additional requirements on payment service providers to maintain records for three years. Additionally, EU Regulation 2021/1230 of 14 July 2021 establishes the rules for cross-border pay - ments and the transparency of currency conver - sion charges within the EU. 6. Marketplaces, Exchanges and Trading Platforms 6.1 Permissible Trading Platforms The regulation applicable to financial assets trading platforms derives from MiFID II rules. Euronext Lisbon, the only stock exchange in Portugal, is the most prominent trading ground for shares and other securities. Securities trad - ing platforms are supervised by CMVM, ensur - ing compliance with transparency and market integrity standards. Multilateral trading facilities (MTFs) are also regulated under Portuguese law and constitute alternative trading platforms enabling securities trading beyond conventional stock exchanges. MTFs are subject to the CMVM’s supervision and offer more adaptable trading conditions at lower costs. The only MTFs in operation in Por - tugal are Euronext Growth and Euronext Access, both managed by the Euronext group.
Organised trading platforms (OTFs) specialise in trading specific securities such as derivatives and have stricter regulations than MTFs. They must satisfy transparency and market integrity criteria while ensuring the absence of conflicts of interest influencing trade execution. The new EU DLT Pilot Regime offers the oppor - tunity to develop new types of platforms. Never - theless, the novelty of this new legal framework has yet to be put to the test in the Portuguese jurisdiction, despite domestic legislation already having been enacted to allow its implementation under Decree-Law No 66/2023 of 8 August. Finally, crypto exchange platforms can also be considered a regulated marketplace. See 6.3. Impact of the Emergence of Cryptocurrency Exchanges for more details. 6.2 Regulation of Different Asset Classes Different asset classes will have different regula - tions and, in some cases, fall under the supervi - sion of different regulators. Financial instruments typically fall under the scope of MiFID II, and fintech operators operating marketplaces are supervised by the CMVM. Virtual assets, if quali - fied as securities, will fall under the jurisdiction of the CMVM and are regulated by the DLT Pilot Regime and recently enacted domestic regula - tions. At the same time, fintech operators may require authorisation from the Bank of Portugal to operate as virtual asset service providers if non-security virtual assets are traded. Hypothetically, depending on the virtual asset admitted to trading in the marketplace, a vir - tual asset service provider (VASP) licence may be required (issued by the Bank of Portugal) in addition to the enrolment of the exchange with the CMVM.
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