The European Authority of Securities and Markets (ESMA)The financial control agency for the negotiation block of 27 countries, has carried out a review of pairs of the Malta application of the markets in cryptography assets (Mica) regime, with specific attention to the rapid authorization of the island of a certain cryptographic firm without a name.
ESMA Pares Review Committee (PRC) It focuses on the authorization of a specific provider of cryptographic assets or “CASP entity”, which was eliminated for Mica despite the fact that “material problems remained unsolved or the pending remediation at the time of authorization.”
OKX, the first five cryptographic exchanges received the state of pre -authorization in Malta earlier this year and shortly later revealed a $ 500 million agreement with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ).
OKX did not confirm whether it is the CASP entity mentioned in the press release review. Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) He said he could not provide official comments on specific operators in relation to the report.
“In the authorization process of the CASP entity, the RPC questions the moment of authorization of the specific entity under Mica since several material problems remained unsolved at the time of authorization,” said ESMA’s review.
“It is not clear to the RPC, why MFSA did not take advantage of the authorization process to ensure that the entity remedy key deficiencies before authorization was effective. The PRC is of the opinion that the general authorization process should have been more exhaustive and carried out in sufficient time to allow MFSA to properly evaluate compliance with the Mica framework.”
Questions about Malta’s competition have circulated since the island began to deliver accelerated licenses, some of which, they should be said, came from players in other jurisdictions that are potentially worried about being behind in terms of authorization of companies.
The ESMA results also declared that any regulator must consider the supervision history of an entity when evaluating an authorization application.
The PRC said: “The entity’s supervision history was part of the authorization evaluation, but was not considered properly”, including the fact that “the material problems remained unsolved or the pending remediation at the time of authorization, including the remediation of previous application cases and the result of the result of the result of the result of (At the time) The slopes. “
The ESMA review continued to say that it found no evidence that certain key aspects of authorization were properly evaluated. These included aspects of their business plan related to their growth and the incorporation of new clients, possible conflicts of interest and governance agreements. The review also mentioned risks related to ICT infrastructure, custody, the use of […] Reserve model, use of web services and certain AML/CFT risks and controls.
The ESMA review found that Malta fulfilled total expectations in areas such as its configuration and supervision resources, and it was only the authorization process where it had really fell short. Malta’s Financial Services Authority (MFSA) He welcomed the findings of Esma.
“The ideas provided by the ESMA pairs review committee (PRC) (Composed of ESMA personnel, European Banking Authority (EBA) and the NCA) are invaluable to support the MFSA and other NCA in their continuous efforts to improve and strengthen the supervision of this sector, ”said the MFSA in a statement sent by email.
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