PORTUGAL Law and Practice Contributed by: João G Gil Figueira, Rodrigue Devillet Lima and Catarina Andrade Miranda, GFDL Advogados
because such advice is reserved for licensed professionals such as lawyers, financial analysts and advisers. Considering that, in most cases, regtech solu - tions tend to require access to sensitive and personal data, all projects will fall under GDPR rules and DORA. 9.2 Contractual Terms to Assure Performance and Accuracy As stated in 9.1 Regulation of Regtech Pro- viders , there is no specific set of provisions for regtechs. While DORA and GDPR do not explic - itly reference regtech, their provisions are appli - cable to financial services firms. 10. Blockchain 10.1 Use of Blockchain in the Financial Services Industry To engage with this emerging trend, traditional banks, insurance firms and asset management entities are actively fostering their own financial innovations. They either outsource specific tasks to relevant service providers, form collaborations or partnerships with them or actively endorse and integrate with promising start-ups. This con - stitutes a change in legacy players’ approach to blockchain and cryptocurrencies, a topic mostly shunned or ignored in the past. Blockchain technology can, for example, play a significant role in new methodologies for authen - ticating the identity of economic agents due to the multilaterally controlled nature of information present in a registry concerning past operations and behaviours. Additionally, it can enable or enhance peer-to-peer financing mechanisms through the internet and even allow for efficien -
cy gains in accounting and auditing procedures within banking activities. 10.2 Local Regulators’ Approach to Blockchain There is no specific regulation for blockchain or DLT as a standalone technology in Portugal. The regulatory focus on blockchain is limited to its use in the context of services involving securities, payments, financial intermediation or investment services, in addition to tackling any money-laundering-enabling features it may have. The most recent set of rules stems from the DLT Pilot Regime. DLT financial instruments are financial instruments within the meaning of MiFID II that are issued, recorded, transferred and stored using a distributed ledger technol - ogy. One of the existing types of DLT, and the most well-known, is blockchain. The new Por - tuguese legislation encompasses a wide range of activities for operators of DLT-based market infrastructures. Operators are authorised to: • provide registration and deposit services for DLT financial instruments; • manage multilateral trading systems; • manage securities settlement systems; • receive, transmit and execute orders on behalf of others; • manage portfolios on behalf of others; and • trade on their own account. However, Decree-Law No 66/2023 is limited to shares, bonds, and units of participation in col - lective investment schemes. These operators’ roles are financial intermediar - ies under the Portuguese Securities Code, and the CMVM is the competent national authority for granting and revoking specific authorisations
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