Understanding the trends behind the headlines.

Europe is reshaping payments, the Digital Euro and trust architecture to prepare for post‑quantum risk and build resilient financial systems.

Quantum computing is reshaping long‑term cryptographic assumptions. This article explores why quantum risk is a governance issue for financial services, and how institutions must move from secure by default to secure by design to protect digital trust.

Stablecoins are increasingly embedded in global payments, but they also shift where financial-crime risk sits. Drawing on the latest analysis from the Financial Action Task Force, this insight explores how unhosted wallets, P2P transactions, and cross-chain activity challenge traditional AML frameworks. It explains why governance design, embedded controls, and lifecycle accountability are becoming critical for firms operating in the stablecoin ecosystem.

Governments and tax authorities are scrambling to keep pace with the increasing digitisation of the global economy and public outcry over the levels of corporate tax being paid by large multinational enterprises.

Since it was first identified in the city of Wuhan (China), the COVID-19 coronavirus has infected over 121,000 people, killing over 4,000 patients. While medical scientists work 24/7 to find a vaccine, Artificial Intelligence (AI) researchers have joined the global effort to defeat the virus.

In June 2019, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) established various rules to combat the misuse of virtual assets for the purpose of money laundering and financing of terrorism. The funds travel rule featured in the FATF’s recommendations as well as it requires Virtual Asset Service Providers (‘VASPs’) to collate and share information about the sender (originator) and receiver (beneficiary) whilst undertaking a transaction.

Initial coin offering (ICO) campaigns, sometimes referred to as ‘token sales’ or ‘token-generating events’ (TGE), which raise funds for a venture through the issue of a cryptographic token in exchange for digital currency (fiat or virtual) may be paralleled to online crowdfunding campaigns or initial public offerings (IPOs).

Parliamentary Secretary for Financial Services, Digital Economy and Innovation Silvio Schembri has announced the launch of a cybersecurity scheme, aimed at instilling a cyber security mentality in the private industry. The B Secure Scheme is a government investment of €250,000 to allow companies to ramp up their cyber security initiatives. A survey carried out by MITA, has shown how only 35% of SMEs provide cyber security training to their employees and 80% are interested in providing such training. Cybercrime is a real and present threat for all Maltese businesses.

Malta was the first country to enact a comprehensive regulatory framework to cater for ICOs. This move to regulate initial coin offerings inspired other regulators around the world to move to regulate the space themselves.

We all heard about “big data”; which is incomprehensibly large data generated by real people. To give you an idea of scale; 90% of all data was created in the last 2 years, and we currently generate c. 2.5 quintillion bytes of data a day.

On 25 January the Malta Financial Services Authority issued an update on the Virtual Financial Assets Framework to update the public on the progress of the implementation of the regulatory framework.

The Malta Financial Services Authority has recently launched a consultation paper highlighting its vision for the coming years. Labelled as MFSA's Vision 2021 it outlines the authority’s aim to strengthen its processes and paving the way for the future of the financial services industry. Concurrently, the MFSA also launched a consultation document on the MFSA's FinTech strategy, proposing the introduction of a regulatory sandbox and innovation hub.

Progress in finance has facilitated the exchange of value to an automated process, but behind the scenes it has been a centuries’ long process to get where we are today.

Many predict that DLT is reinventing and transforming key industries and creating new business models, making every transaction transparent, democratic, decentralized, efficient and secure. The belief in blockchain’s potential is so widespread that financial and tech entities have invested an estimate of $1.4 billion in 2016, which is expected to go up to $2.1 billion in 2018.

AI has slowly been working its way into businesses. Business Intelligence (BI) systems generate and automatically process a wealth of digital data providing the necessary metrics to efficiently run an organization. Machine learning and AI solutions have the potential to further crunch such data creating unprecedented opportunities for improvement across health, lifestyle, transportation, education and practically every human activity.

Malta plans to develop a National AI Strategy, putting the island amongst the top 10 nations that have taken such an approach to artificial intelligence . A key advantage of Malta is its size, making it similar to a cosmopolitan city that could allow companies to test their products in a real-life scenario.