In this regard the submission of the Certificate of Compliance is no longer required.
CSPs established as a partnership shall submit the annual income statement and balance sheet, as well as comprehensive notes to the income statement and balance sheet, which shall be dated and signed by a minimum of two partners, to the MFSA within 4 months following financial year end.
CSPs established as a civil partnership having a warrant, or equivalent, and authorised to act as an Under Threshold Class “A” CSP, shall only be required to provide the CSP’s financial information to the Authority through the Annual Compliance Return.
In the case of an individual providing CSP services, such person shall only be required to provide the CSP’s financial information to the Authority through the Annual Compliance Return by 30 April.
It is important to note that if a warranted civil partnership authorised to act as an Under Threshold Class “A” or an individual CSP fail to submit the Annual Compliance Return to the Authority within the prescribed deadline, it shall also be deemed to be a failure on the part of the CSP to provide the Authority with the financial information it requires for the proper conduct of its supervisory activities.
Under Threshold Class “A” CSPs or Under Threshold Class “B” CSPs shall be required to declare in the Annual Compliance Return that they fall within the applicable thresholds to qualify as an ‘Under Threshold Class “A” CSP or Under Threshold Class “B” CSP respectively.
The frequency of the obligation to monitor and evaluate the adequacy and effectiveness of the CSP`s own systems and internal control mechanisms and arrangements is reduced to annual, instead of the previous biannual monitoring.
Furthermore the MFSA must be notified in writing where a Class “A” CSP and Class “C” CSP authorised to provide the service of a registered office, a business correspondence or administrative address and other related services for a company, a partnership or any other legal entity, intends to use a different address for the provision of such services to clients through an address which is not the CSP’s registered address.
The Rules also amend the requirements for legal person CSPs, which are intent in surrendering their licence voluntarily but do not intend to place the company in dissolution.
The MFSA is in the final stages to update the requested information in the Annual Compliance Return. A Circular is expected to be published when the updated version is available for CSPs to download and complete for the annual submission.