Malta Highly Qualified Persons Rules: CCA Secures Approvals

Our firm has over the last few months successfully concluded a number of applications under the new Malta Highly Qualified Persons Rules which seek to encourage the growth of the Maltese financial services and i-gaming sectors by introducing attractive tax rates for individuals operating within these industries and having particular skill sets. Essentially if the relevant conditions are satisfied the relevant individual can benefit from a flat rate of tax of 15%.

You can find more information about this on our website by following the link here: Malta Highly Qualified Persons Rules.

Get in touch if you think you may be eligible. 

Charles Cassar

Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates - Malta Financial Services Law Firm

Legal 500 features the Maltese forex domicile

Legal 500 are featuring our article on the growth of Malta as a forex jurisdiction. The article touches upon the factors driving growth in the forex industry as well as the future prospectes of the Maltese forex industry. You can read the full article by following the link: Forex in Malta

Get in touch if you'd like to learn more about the topic.

Dr Charles Cassar,
Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates, Malta forex law firm

Hedge Fund Management in Malta: HFM Week Interview

I was recently interviewed by HMF Week, a leading hedge funds publication, with respect to the prospects and challenges facing Malta's funds industry, with a specific focus on the management of funds from Malta. The full text of the interview can be found on our website. You can also find the original interview here.

Here's a snippet of the full interview:

HFM: Malta has long had a solid reputation as a destination for fund managers and their investment vehicles – how has this strengthened?

CC: Throughout this year the jurisdiction has attracted plenty of positive press, with Bloomberg, Business Insider, HFMWeek and the Financial Times all making very positive statements about Malta. The country is now a well-established fund jurisdiction that can host a variety of investment strategies and a broad range of fund sizes and structures. I think this is the key change we’ve seen over the past couple of years – whereas before it was commonplace for people to speak about Malta as an emerging domicile, nowadays it is pretty much tried and tested.

Charles Cassar, Malta Funds Lawyer
Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates, Malta

Malta fund platform structures: a comparison

In a previous post I spoke about the introduction of the Recognized Incorprated Cell Company structure and how it could be an interesting new option for platform providers. As a firm we are now seeing increasing interest in the use of this structure (as well as continued interest in the set-up of Malta hedge funds in general). We have therefore prepared a publication which analyzes in further detail the nature of this structure, and are also providing a comparison table that highlights the differences between RICCs and other vehicles that can be used as fund platforms. You can find the publication on our website. This should be useful reading both for operators interested in setting up Malta RICCs as well as fund managers looking to understand better any structure in which they may have a plug-in arrangement.

Charles Cassar, Funds Lawyer
Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates, Malta

What is Best Execution?

The requirement of 'Best Execution' is one of the more ambiguous requirements imposed on investment services providers. Essentially, service providers are required to execute transactions on terms most favourable to their clients, but how does one determine this? The question is a complex one and there is no easy answer. In order to shed some light on the issue, we have uploaded a publication on our website www.ccmalta.com. You can find the publication by clicking on this link: Malta best execution requirements. The publication deals with various useful question such as the criteria to be considered when determining best execution and the entities to which the requirement applies.

I hope you find this publication useful. As always, feel free to get in touch if you have questions.

Dr Charles Cassar
Malta Financial Services Lawyer
Chetcuti Cauchi

FinanceMalta 'Insight' Magazine features our Forex article

FinanceMalta's 'Insight' Magazine has featured our article on the growth of the Maltese Forex industry: 'Forex businesses choose Malta as their domicile'. Here's an extract from the full article:

... well-run forex businesses are increasingly concerned with demonstrating and evidencing their reputability, especially in light of recent ESMA warnings against unregulated operations. Malta allows these businesses to obtain a licence in accordance with high European standards, which is bound to be an important boost as clients become increasingly aware of the importance of sound regulation. Secondly, the fact that the business is run in accordance with the European rule book can open up interesting opportunities for cross-border passporting of services, which can lead to significant cost savings.


As a firm we continue to see new engagements and interest in this area on a regular basis, and are confident  that the island can continue growing the sector in the future. Get in touch if you would like to learn more, or visit our dedicated forex page.


Dr Charles Cassar
Financial Services Lawyer
Chetcuti Cauchi, Malta

Private collective investment schemes in Malta

One structure that is not often discussed in Malta is that of the private collective investment scheme, colloquially referred to as the 'family and friends fund'. The reason for this likely is that, being unlicensed funds, these structures do not benefit from the same simple zero tax treatment as other Maltese funds. The structures also have a number of limitations as to number of investors, and relationship between the investors and the manager, for example. Nevertheless it is useful to be aware of this option. We've uploaded a publication on our website www.ccmalta.com where you can find more information on the structure.

Read more about Maltese private collective investment schemes here: link.