Legislative and technological developments in the capital market in 2025 

The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) has published a press release on 11 March 2025 to present an overview of CySEC’s activities in 2024 and outline the regulator’s objectives for 2025.

More than 850 on-site and remote thematic audits of supervised entities and a series of administrative fines in 2024

In summary:

Within 2024, the Supervision and AML/CFT Departments of CySEC carried out more than 850 on site and remote thematic audits of supervised entities. Remote checks were also carried out on a systematic basis to ensure firms maintained compliance with the thresholds resulting from theprudential supervision framework and European Banking Authority’s guidelines and to strengthen oversight on firms’ remuneration policies, internal risks and business models.

During 2024, CySEC also audited 510 annual reports of compliance officers and company internal audits for AML compliance, alongside its close monitoring of Cyprus investment firms (CIFs), Administrative Service Providers (ASPs), Managers of Collective Investment Funds and Crypto Asset Service Providers (CASPs).

An additional 89 supervised collective investment funds were audited by CySEC whilst transaction/derivatives reporting requirements from 33 Managers and Collective Investment Funds were assessed. CySEC also carried out data collection and an assessment for monitoring and risk management in the commercial real estate sector.

CySEC’s Investigations and Market Surveillance Department conducted 17 entries-investigations and completed 44 investigations of supervised entities in 2024. By the end of the year, 52 investigations were ongoing.

A key focus in 2024 was the adoption and implementation of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), which applies to crypto-asset service providers. There has already been interest
from several companies seeking to obtain relevant licenses from CySEC.

Also, in 2024, CySEC prioritised the adoption of the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), which came into full effect in January.

Regarding the growth of the sector, 80 entities were authorised in 2024, bringing the total number of supervised entities at the end of the year to 834. In addition, one application to obtain a CIF licence and four applications from firms to provide crypto-assets in the European territory were rejected by CySEC. Another 13 applications were withdrawn, of which three were applications for the authorisation of CIFs, seven were applications for the provision of crypto-assets and three were applications for the authorisation of Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFMDs)

The full press release published by CySEC can be found on the following link:

https://www.cysec.gov.cy/CMSPages/GetFile.aspx?guid=afcb8d81-07d2-48a4-a3e2-97f045804aa3

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