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Mario Mizzi

Mamo TCV: To date, Embedded Finance has neither been defined in Maltese nor EU law
FinTech Insights #6 –
Embedded Finance in Malta FinTech

FinTech Insights #6 –
Embedded Finance in Malta

The concept of embedding a financial service within a non-financial service entails the integration of licensable financial activities into non-financial digital platforms. The embedded services typically encompass payments, lending, investments, and insurance. The financial services are integrated into platforms such as social media and various productivity/lifestyle applications, which would otherwise not be considered as financial products at all. Embedded Finance (commonly abbreviated as “EmFi”) is the term associated with the notion of integrating a regulated financial service within a digital platform that is unregulated for that specific financial service. EmFi raises legal queries relating to compliance, investor protection, and financial…
Mario Mizzi
22nd March 2024
ESMA TRV Report on Real Estate Investment Funds Investment Services & Funds

ESMA TRV Report on Real Estate Investment Funds

The current exposure in the EU investment fund sector to the risks in real estate markets has been the subject of a recent publication, dated 10th January 2024, which was issued by the European Securities and Markets Authority (“ESMA”) as part of its ongoing Trends, Risks and Vulnerabilities (“TRV”) risk analysis. The publication, entitled ‘ESMA TRV Report in real estate markets – Risk exposures in EU securities markets and investment funds’ (“TRV report”), provides data which shows that securities linked to real estate are increasingly utilised as collateral. Moreover, ESMA outlines in page three of the TRV report that there…
Mario Mizzi
10th January 2024
Fintech Insights #5 –
Reverse Solicitation in EU’s MiCA Banking & FinanceFinTech

Fintech Insights #5 –
Reverse Solicitation in EU’s MiCA

The Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA)1 provides the legal framework for digital asset services within the European Union. This regulation, detailed with its 149 articles and 6 annexes, mandates that entities wishing to provide digital asset services across the EU must secure authorisation in one of the EU Member States. It impacts Malta not only because of the regulation’s direct applicability but also because the jurisdiction is known for its forward-thinking stance in financial technology law due to its early implementation of the Virtual Financial Assets Act, Chapter 590 of the Laws of Malta. In this fintech insight, rather…
Mario Mizzi
14th November 2023
In this fintech insight, we provide a juxtaposition of Centralised Finance (CeFi) and Decentralised Finance (DeFi) to analyse how these two divergent notions can co-exist in the Fintech Law space.
Fintech Insights #4 –
CeFi and DeFi’s Coexistence Banking & FinanceFinTech

Fintech Insights #4 –
CeFi and DeFi’s Coexistence

The initial proponents of Decentralised Finance (“DeFi”) opined that DeFi, as opposed to Centralised Finance (“CeFi”), could innovate the financial system by providing easier methods of payments and other financial services. The reasoning was based on the notion that transactions without a centralised intermediary in the financial system entail a simpler economy with less regulatory burdens. In fact, the laws governing finance in Western countries (irrespective of their Common Law or Civilian Law traditions) are largely based on CeFi principles. In May 2023, the European Systemic Risk Board (“ESRB”), an EU body under the European System of Financial Supervision, provided…
Mario Mizzi
4th August 2023
AI & Funds #6 –
Conflicts of Interest Investment Services & Funds

AI & Funds #6 –
Conflicts of Interest

The purpose of disclosing conflicts of interest in the investment services industry is to ensure maximum transparency for the investor. A common conflict of interest is the situation when the fund’s investment manager owns voting shares in the fund and appoints a director who is already heavily involved in the investment manager’s structure. Consequently, the appointed director might be conflicted if one is required to take a decision against the investment manager. To mitigate this conflict of interest, the fund would apply its existent policy on conflicts of interest which would stipulate that the conflict be disclosed during board meetings…
Mario Mizzi
15th June 2023
The principle of Open Finance promotes an ecosystem where the customers of financial services allow some of their data to be utilised for the creation of more innovate financial solutions. The EU’s second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) is moving towards its third version, namely PSD3. In this insight briefing, we analyse how the proposed PSD3 could enhance the principle of Open Finance in the fintech sector.
Fintech Insights #3 –
Open Finance in the Proposed PSD3 FinTech

Fintech Insights #3 –
Open Finance in the Proposed PSD3

Open Finance is becoming a pivotal element in the evolution of the European Union's regulatory framework for payment services, most notably embodied in the anticipated Third Payment Services Directive (“PSD3”). The European Banking Authority (“EBA”) has proposed significant revisions to the current legislation, many of which aim to further the objectives of enhancing competition, facilitating innovation, increasing payment transaction security, protecting consumers, and creating a unified EU retail payments market​. The second version of the Payment Services Directive1 (“PSD2”) was last updated in 2015 and came into force in 2018. PSD2 not only offers clear guidelines to the payment service…
Mario Mizzi
24th May 2023