Introduction Directive No. 19 (the “Directive”), issued by the Central Bank of Malta (the “CBM” or the “Central Bank”) on the 7th July 2021 officially came into effect on 1st January 2022, with amendments issued in September 2024. It applies to all paper-based instruments issued, processed, or encashed within Malta’s jurisdiction, as long as these instruments are denominated in euros. The Directive sets the framework for the safe and effective use of cheques and bank drafts (collectively referred to as "paper-based instruments") where the payer, payee and the regulated institutions servicing the paper-based instruments are all located in Malta. It…
The Court of Justice of the European Union (the “CJEU”) has issued a decision (C-109/23) on a reference for a preliminary ruling requested by a German court in relation to a potential breach of restrictive measures issued against Russia. The referring court requested the CJEU to provide a ruling on whether a German notary would have infringed the prohibition to provide legal advisory services to a legal person in Russia had he authenticated a contract for the sale of title to an apartment that was entered into between the Russian legal person as seller and a national of a Member…
The Council of Europe has recently published a guidance note to the general public considering the best practices for the effective implementation of restrictive measures. This guidance note sets out to provide a non-exhaustive list of recommendations for the effective implementation of restrictive measures. The first set of recommendations relates to the designation and identification of persons and entities which are subject to restrictive measures. One of these recommendations relates to the specific identifiers of persons and entities which are subject to targeted restrictive measures. The Council of Europe suggests that as many specific identifiers as possible be published at…