Mauritius Island Nation Lawmaker to Issue Crypto Custodian Service Licenses

Have you ever heard of the island nation of Mauritius? While not as well known as the Blockchain Island, Malta, Mauritius is a small island nation that has a positive stance on cryptos. Now, the company is starting to issue custodian licenses that will be used by companies who want to hold digital assets for their clients.

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) of the Republic of Mauritius has recently published a draft framework for a new custodian services licenses that will be given to companies in the fintech sector.

At the moment, the financial authority is seeking a feedback from industry representatives and other important actors before it decides for the law. Anyone interested can also send emails to the authority until the end of November.

Mauritius already provides two licenses for related services at this point, but no license is aimed at regarding the specifics of the digital asset custody and regulation.

Now, the draft states that the holders of the license will be regarded as financial institutions with the same rights and obligations as the other ones and that will have to be compliant with the anti-money laundering laws of the country.

Other specific requirements for this kind of company include prevention to terrorism financing and an obligation to maintain a minimum capital of 500,000 Mauritian rupees (about $15,000 USD). To apply for the license, a company need to have permanent representatives on the island and to maintain records of its custodial services.

Also, if a company is governed by a board of directors or more than three members, at least one of them has to live in the country in order to live there.

While the license will be useful for the companies to be fully compliant with the law of the country, the companies are expected to keep the safekeeping of the assets and transaction management at a high level of security and quality and they need insurance.

In order to be certain that the companies will be compliant with the rules, they will have to provide proof that they are doing everything that was asked by submitting evidence before they get the license.

The one trick from the document is that digital assets were still not defined in the country, so this might provide some type of problem later down the road but it is still too early to say.

According to information from Finance Magnets, the first applicant for the license is Hybrid Stock Exchange Corporation Limited (HYBSE) International Marketplace. The company will possibly start working in 2019 in the country if it receives the license.