Manuel Pays Banque Privée – Macao – Mise à jour BRP 2024
BRP has updated its Country Manual Private Banking for Macao out of bank’s country of establishment (DEF, RS, BT and RT)
| Source of changes | Answers |
|---|---|
| Law / Regulation | Yes |
| New Position of the Authorities | No |
| Evolution of Expert’s Interpretation | Yes |
Regulatory Template, Regulatory Summary and Behaviour Template
Material changes
As informed in our Alert Macao 1/2023, the new Financial System Act (“FSA”) (Law No. 13/2023) came into force on 1 November 2023 and replaced the 30-year-old Decree-Law No. 32/93/M, leading to important changes to financial services regulation in Macao. The following material changes were implemented:
- The Country Manual refers to the updated legal basis.
- Financial intermediaries are no longer in the scope of the new FSA and will likely be regulated by the new Securities Law. The new FSA removes the license for financial intermediaries regulated under the previous FSA and currently allows Macanese licensed intermediaries to lawfully provide investment services including brokerage, investment advisory and discretionary asset management in Macao.
- Rules to be applied until the new Securities Law is in place: Foreign financial institutions and financial services providers with no local presence in Macao (i.e. unlicensed in Macao) may continue to follow the guidance provided by the previous regime during the transitional period as prescribed by the new FSA until after further legislative development (i.e. issue of the new Securities Law) and/or further notice by the authorities.
- The sanction regime has been adapted to the new FSA.
Although the establishment of a branch is not within the scope of the Country Manual PB Macao, we take this opportunity to remind foreign financial institutions that have been authorized to operate business in Macao on the effective date of the new FSA (1 November 2023) to make relevant adjustments within one year from the effective date of the new FSA (i.e. until 1 November 2024) to comply with the provisions of Article 31 regarding operating capital and Article 56 regarding administrative management and supervision of credit institutions.
We would also like to mention again, that the new FSA introduced a new license for restricted license banks. Based on Article 21 of the new FSA, a restricted license bank is a bank that is only permitted to carry out a restricted range of banking businesses and services, with less strict requirements than for a full-service bank. However, it is yet ambiguous as to whether foreign financial institutions are allowed to apply for such a license.
We continue to monitor the situation and will issue follow-up alerts and update the Country Manuals as needed.
Non-material changes
Some comments/conditions have been reworded and further non-material changes have been made throughout the documents.
Implications for business relations with third parties
As the new FSA removed the license for financial intermediaries, foreign banks should follow the legislative development of the upcoming Securities Law to understand if (and how) it may impact the cooperation with local third parties. Until after further legislative development and/or further notice by the authorities, foreign banks with no local presence in Macao cooperating with local third parties may continue to follow the guidance provided by the previous regime during the transitional period as prescribed by the new FSA.
Regulatioon Summary
This document has now a more user-friendly layout and reflects the changes contained in the RT.
BT Short Comparison
BRP has created a comparison document allowing users to quickly identify the modifications made compared to the previous version of the PB Manual (BT Short Comparison). The BT Short Comparison can be found on BRP’s platform (mybrponline) in the Search tab by entering in the Document Field “CM PB BT SHORT COMP” and “MACAO” in the Target Country Field.
The BT Short Comparison should be read as follows:
The first column contains a short description of the activity in question. The second column contains the answers of the previous version of the Country Manual (online until the day of the alert). The third column contains the new answers of the most recent version of the Country Manual. Only the modified answers are displayed (in color). If the answers in the new version are unchanged compared to the previous version, they are shaded in grey.
For more information, please contact us: info@brpsa.com
Geneva, April 4th, 2024