18.08.2022
Following news that international financial technology firm Revolut had received approval to set up a crypto hub in Cyprus, the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) on Wednesday confirmed that it had recently received a total of 18 applications from crypto asset providers. of which she approved only two.
In addition to Revolut, which will operate in Cyprus under the name RT Digital Securities Cyprus Ltd (Revolut), CySEC has also approved Just2Trade Online Ltd’s application.
Both companies have been added to the commission’s list of crypto asset service providers.
The Commission also maintains a register of companies that have obtained licenses for crypto assets in other European countries and have applied for a license in Cyprus.
There are five such companies, the commission has already approved the Estonian company BTCBIT OU, the Polish company BTCBIT sp. z oo, the Estonian company Dream Finance OU, the Maltese company Foris Max MT Limited and the Estonian company Worldwide OU.
In addition, CySEC Chairman George Theohharides confirmed that the commission is the competent supervisory authority for crypto asset providers in Cyprus.
Theohharides also explained that CySEC only oversees these companies in relation to their compliance with anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing requirements.
“It is very important that investors are aware that they have no right of recourse or protection at this stage, since cryptocurrencies and related products and services do not fall within the existing scope of protection under current EU financial services rules,” Theohharides emphasized. .
“The commission’s financial awareness campaign to inform and protect investors is already well under way,” he added.
The Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) on Wednesday published a report containing the number of investment institutions operating in Cyprus in June 2022, as well as relevant data on their operations during this time.
According to the report, the number of investment entities increased from 273 in March 2022 to 274 in June 2022.
In addition, their total assets increased marginally by 0.14% month-on-month, rising to €8.7 billion in June 2022.
The total assets of investment institutions operating in Cyprus in March this year amounted to 8.69 billion euros.
The Pan-Cypriot Federation of Independent Trade Unions (Poaso) said this week that the introduction of a national minimum wage is “an important step in the right direction.”
“This direction involves the provision of fair and decent wages to private sector workers, that is, those who need it most,” the federation said in a press release. “As a result, this will help to partially correct the inequality identified by the Center for Economic Research (CypERC),” he added.
The federation also said that cutting the wages of low-ranking public sector workers is not the way to close the pay gap between the private and public sectors.
Conversely, the federation explained, the government should strive for a more equitable distribution of national wealth and an improvement in the quality of life of workers, which “helps raise the wages of low-paid private sector workers.”
The Cyprus Stock Exchange (CSE) ended Wednesday 17 August with a profit.
The overall Cypriot stock market index stood at 69.63 points at 13:21 during the day, reflecting an increase of 0.16% from the previous trading day.
The FTSE/CySE 20 Index stood at 41.76 points, up 0.19%.
The total transaction value was 18,222 euros.
As for the sub-indices, the main and alternative indices rose by 0.34% and 0.1%, respectively.
The hotel index fell 0.65%, while the investment company index remained stable.
Bank of Cyprus (+0.91%), Hellenic Bank (+2.09%) and Atlantic Insurance (+0.61%) attracted the highest investment interest.
