The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (“CySEC”), as an authority regulating the operation of Cyprus Investment Firms (hereinafter referred to as “the CIFs”), has recently issued guidance on what it considers to be significant Cyprus investment firms (“CIFs”). This guidance was presented in the form of the CySEC Directive DI 144-2014-14 for the Prudential Supervision of Investment Firms (“the Directive”), which itself amended the Investment Services and Activities and Regulated Markets Law, Law 144(I) of 2007. The said Directive provides for more stringent and exact requirements regarding corporate governance of CIFs which are considered and/or deemed to be significant by reference to their size, internal organisation or the nature, scale and complexity of their activities.
CySEC’s policy is to apply an objective definition with pre-defined thresholds to determine which CIFs are considered significant for the purposes of these requirements. A CIF is deemed to be significant if it meets any of the following criteria:
• total assets in excess of €43 million;
• revenue for the preceding 12 months in excess of €50 million;
• clients’ money in excess of €60 million;
• clients’ assets in excess of €2 billion.
New CySec Directive On Corporate Governance Of CIFs