In brief The United Arab Emirates’ (“UAE”) federal-level financial services regulator relevant to securities, commodities and now Virtual Assets Service Providers (“VASPs”), the UAE Securities and Commodities Authority (“SCA”), has just issued two new regulations relevant to Virtual Assets (“VAs”): SCA Chairman of the Board of Director’s Decision No. (26/RM) of 2023 in relation to Virtual Assets Platform Operators (the “SCA VA Exchange Regulations”); and SCA Chairman of the Board of Director’s Decision No. (27/RM)…
In brief The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) recently published regulations pertaining to payment cards tokenization on electronic device applications (“Tokenization Regulations”) which came into force on 8 March 2023. The Tokenization Regulations will effectively allow for contactless payments through mobile applications including some operated by major mobile payment service providers. The said regulations impose regulatory and licensing requirements on banks and non-bank parties participating in the provision of tokenization services for payment cards. Key…
In brief Over the last few years, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has taken steps to regulate the volatile crypto industry, as seen in the recent crypto winter, and to anticipate global crypto regulatory developments including in the US and in the UK that have been called upon to regulate the sector through regulations rather than enforcement, to protect retail investors that ultimately were the major victims of the crypto winter. In 2020, the Financial…