EXANTE’s Post

Transcript

Hello. And you're welcome, of course, to Burgoo, which is in the South East of Malta, one of Maltas gems for hospitality. And I'm here today with Doctor Justine Herrera, who's a very accomplished lawyer in Malta. Justine, thank you very much for joining us today. Maybe you can tell us a little bit about yourself. Pleasure. Thanks for the invite. Lovely setting. So as you, as you correctly mentioned, I'm a lawyer by profession. I started my career in the criminal courts, which actually is not as glamorous as as persons. Think. And then I rolled into the banking and investment services sector and eventually found myself in the cryptocurrencies advisory sector after conducting a a masters in crooning in in cyber crime. And for the first last five years or so, I've been a partner and shareholder at the Michael Kyprianou Group where I set up a fintech and crypto department and I've been doing that for the last five years. Justin, you're considered a very kind of hip lawyer in that. You're very much involved with our specialising, should I say, in fintech and crypto currencies which have seen a huge uptake here in Malta. Can you tell us a little about the sectors that you're working and which sectors are becoming more prominent nowadays? So the three main sectors we deal in, my, my part, my, my team within the firm, our investment services, so primarily midfield related licenses, fintech services, so. Licenses and payments, institutional licenses and cryptocurrencies or virtual financial assets, so crypto licenses, token issuance, et cetera. And yet we've seen a very big uptake especially in the fintech and crypto space. I believe that for Fintech, MI, NPI licenses were top two jurisdictions and top 2 member states. In Europe. We used to be a close competitor with UK, but then Brexit happened and for cryptocurrencies we've had a virtual financial assets. Which is very, very closely aligned to Mika, the new EU regulation, for around five years, so our regulator is beyond competent in that sector. A lot of companies have found a home and a base from abroad in Malta. I'm sure people like yourself have advised many people, especially entrepreneurs trying to find a niche and mortar. What would you say are the standout things that make Malta so competitive compared to other jurisdictions? Of reasons, um, well, we have the obvious reason which is tax. So we have very low taxes at least next to some other jurisdictions like Germany or France and we're a member of the European Union. So when it comes to fast sporting or services across the union and it's a good base. The English language, it's one of our official languages. So, so it's it's easy to understand what you're doing and what documents are being presented to the authority. And also I would say that the MFC as a regulator. Is quite business friendly. You can easily get on a call or or request a meeting with them which which some other jurisdictions, and you know they're regulators of. Some other other jurisdictions are not as friendly. Malta as itself is becoming a kind of. For many people, from a tech point of view, they see Malta as very innovative. Many changes here, our universities of course, are leading the way as well and doing training courses and helping. You mentioned a while ago about cryptocurrency and fintech, too many out there. It's still seen as a bit of a dark space when it comes to business because Malta of course, especially during the economic crash which Europe found did very well because it relied a lot on traditional banking. And the way they did business, what would be your view on those people out there who think, you know, this is a bit of a a kind of a a no go area? Yeah. So I would say that's definitely very passive as a way of thinking. If you want to be a cowboy and operate in the Gray market, you need to go offshore to somewhere like say Asians or some other country similar which doesn't have any regulations in place, more as part of the European Union. The European Union has taken a stance on the crypto asset sector and has passed a regulation. Which is now in force and and, which means that all Member States needs to implement some transpose, and water has already done that. I mentioned awhile ago you're seen as quite. Up to date if I can say hip and trendy lawyer in the fact that you're invited to a lot of conferences around the world and you become a very big speaker in areas where these subjects that you specialize are taking place. When you go abroad and you speak to people about mortar what are their concerns what's the feedback. So some some feedback we get is that mold has a bit of a tough regulator and that license is sometime may take awhile which in reality is true they are a bit of a. Considering you know that we are one of the top jurisdictions of choice in terms of volume for EMI let's say or crypto asset service providers, it's still a very tough regulator. You're not going to get a license within three or six months, which is easy for example let's say Lithuania for for cryptocurrencies. So I would say if you're thinking about morals as a jurisdiction of choice and make sure you're well budgeted, well well resourced, you take the local substance requirements very seriously and. Because they do have high standards. And can I finally ask you, when you started out Justine, and you're quite a young person, I'm sure when you got into law, you never envisioned the avenue it would take you down, especially where you are today. How do you see that future for yourself going forward? Ah yes, it's true. I never envisioned ending up in cryptocurrencies advisory, especially given that I started out in the law courts and so they're sort of natural evolution for me. I love anything to do with the digital asset space to organization. I think we're still in a nation stage especially when it comes to traditional securities and traditional assets and and and blockchain. However the the future is bright and I'm very glad I got into it. Clearly and because we're just at the beginning. And finally Justine, what are the things about Malta that you love for yourself and for your family? What are the things that make Multi special to you? So as you probably know is a very, very small island in the Mediterranean. I would say some things I like or you know the constant sunshine. We do have no seriously good weather all year around quality of life therefore as as a as a byproduct of that is quite good. We have a very good. Ecosystem here. There's a lot of gaming providers, payment providers, cryptocurrency providers. So obviously the ecosystem is, is, is, is great. I would say those are some of the the great items. Well, Doctor Justine Herrera, thank you very much for giving us a little bit about your work and your life. And I'm sure people want to read up or do some feeds. You can always check out Justine's page, but thank you very much. Pleasure. Thanks for having me.