2022-01-31
For the attention of providers of crowdfunding services: major changes taking place in regulation, please contact the Bank of Lithuania
The Bank of Lithuania would like to draw the attention of crowdfunding platform operators and potential providers of crowdfunding services to regulatory changes: with the entry into force of the common European Union regulation, we invite you to apply for a crowdfunding service provider’s licence and to be removed from the list of public crowdfunding platform operators processed by the Bank of Lithuania.
The Crowdfunding Regulation entered into force on 10 November 2021. It harmonises the requirements for the operation and licensing of providers of crowdfunding services across the European Union (EU), opening up the possibility for our country’s financial market participants to provide crowdfunding services in other EU countries and for crowdfunding platform operators of other EU countries to provide services in Lithuania.
The Crowdfunding Regulation amends the Republic of Lithuania Law on Crowdfunding, which will be repealed on 10 November this year. After this date, the crowdfunding platform operators included in the public list processed by the Bank of Lithuania will no longer be authorised to provide crowdfunding services and will not have the right to provide the possibility to enter into new financing transactions through the crowdfunding platforms administered by them.
The crowdfunding platform operators intending to continue providing these services already in accordance with the Crowdfunding Regulation are required to submit to the Bank of Lithuania the documentation necessary for the relicensing procedure no later than by 9 November this year.
The Bank of Lithuania has actively contributed to the drafting of the Crowdfunding Regulation, which is similar to the current regulation in Lithuania. In order to make the relicensing process smoother, the Bank of Lithuania has carried out a detailed analysis of information and prepared guidelines on simplified requirements for crowdfunding platform operators being relicensed.
Potential providers of crowdfunding services are invited to apply to the Bank of Lithuania for the issue of a licence already in accordance with the procedure laid down in the Crowdfunding Regulation.
More information on the requirements for the activities of crowdfunding service providers and the licensing procedure can be found here.