Malta: Financial Services

The European Union has reached a compromise on the Payment Services Directive 3 (PSD3) and Payment Services Regulation (PSR), introducing sweeping changes to harmonise payment rules across Member States. The package addresses fragmentation under PSD2 by migrating conduct-of-business rules into directly applicable regulations, while introducing new provisions on cash access, cryptocurrency payment services, fraud liability, and open banking.

For decades, digital trust has relied on a foundational assumption: that the cryptographic systems securing financial infrastructure are effectively unbreakable within any realistic business horizon. That assumption is now being re‑examined.

Our Mamo TCV Regulatory Compliance Quarterly Update is intended to keep Maltese regulated entities informed of regulatory changes and developments taking place mainly in the local financial services space.

Advancements in the world of fintech have fundamentally reshaped consumer behaviour through the rise of flexible payment methods, driven by surging technological developments.

Malta has signalled its intent to meet the 7th June 2026 deadline for transposing the Pay Transparency Directive 2023/970 (the Directive) into national law.

Recent guidance issued in relation to the Annual Compliance Report and the Compliance Monitoring Plan provides an important signal to financial institutions. The Authority is no longer reviewing the CMP as a routine compliance document. It is reviewing it as evidence of whether the institution understands its own risk profile and whether it is actively testing the effectiveness of its controls.

On 12 February 2026, the European Banking Authority (EBA) issued an Opinion addressing supervisory priorities at the end of the transition period under its June 2025 No Action Letter (NAL) on the interplay between PSD2...

On August 11, 2025, the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) published a Consultation Document regarding the revised Chapter 1 of the Financial Institutions Rulebook (FIR/01).

Further to the Malta Financial Services Authority's (‘MFSA') circular setting out the reporting timelines applicable to the annual submission of the Register of Information (‘ROI') under Regulation (EU) 2022/2554...