In November 2015 the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission ("CySEC") introduced a "fast-track" procedure to expedite the examination and determination of applications for authorisation of entities it regulates, which involved paying a supplementary fee that would be used to finance overtime payments to employees of CySEC who would examine the applications outside their normal working hours, with a view to determining "fast-tracked" applications within eight weeks. Applications from entities not wishing to participate in the scheme would continue to be processed as normal.
Following a temporary suspension in February and March 2016 the "fast-track" scheme was relaunched on 1 April 2016 with substantially higher fees.
CySEC has now announced that it has again decided to suspend the "fast track" scheme in relation to applications for authorisation of Cyprus Investment Firms, due to the imminent implementation of the new legislative framework for authorisation of Cyprus Investment Firms under MiFID 2. No new "fast-track" applications for authorisation of Cyprus Investment Firms will be accepted after 22 November 2017, but processing of applications already in the procedure will be completed.
The suspension relates solely to applications for authorisation of Cyprus Investment Firms and does not affect any other types of application. CySEC will issue a further announcement when it relaunches the "fast-track" scheme for applications for authorisation of Cyprus Investment Firms.
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