Bank of Lithuania
2024-10-23
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  • American wealthtech granted a financial brokerage firm licence
  • EBA guidelines aimed to ensure high-quality supervisory data and reduce reporting costs
  • Amounts of contributions of supervised financial market participants approved

American wealthtech granted a financial brokerage firm licence
Lietuvos bankas granted UAB DriveWealth Europe, an investment and wealth management innovation company (wealthtech), a financial brokerage firm licence (category B). It grants the right to accept and submit orders in Lithuania and other European Union countries as well as store and manage foreign exchange financial instruments where these services are related to the provision of investment services.

“Lithuania continues to strengthen its position as a European fintech hub. We hope that the new market participant will promote the development and competitiveness of the capital market,” says Simonas Krėpšta, Member of the Board of Lietuvos bankas. 

UAB DriveWealth Europe belongs to the international financial brokerage group DriveWealth, established in 2012 in the US. The New York-based group currently has 11 companies and provides services in the US and Singapore. 

DriveWealth works on a B2B basis with other financial institutions (banks, credit unions, financial brokerage firms, etc.) and enables the clients of these institutions to access the US capital markets (NYSE and Nasdaq stock exchanges). 

EBA guidelines aimed to ensure high-quality supervisory data and reduce reporting costs
When supervising the financial market, Lietuvos bankas follows the Guidelines on resubmission of historical data under the EBA reporting framework (EBA/GL/2024/04) adopted by EBA. 

The requirements set out in the Guidelines should be followed by financial sector entities (e.g. credit and payment institutions, financial brokerage firms) reporting under the supervisory and resolution reporting framework developed by EBA. The Guidelines are effective from 17 October 2024.

The EBA Guidelines set out the requirements for financial sector entities to resubmit historical data to the supervisory or resolution authority if they contain errors, inaccuracies or changes. They also set out specific circumstances under which it is not necessary to revise historical data. 

The Guidelines do not remove the obligation of financial sector entities to report high-quality, consistent and complete data but rather serve as a tool for entities to ensure that their reporting obligation is fulfilled and that relevant data are reported, even if there were inaccuracies or errors. Moreover, they aim to ensure that supervisory and resolution authorities as well as EBA receive high-quality data allowing them to perform their functions.

Amounts of contributions of supervised financial market participants approved
The Board of Lietuvos bankas approved the amounts of contributions of supervised financial market participants for 2025. Should the contributions exceed the supervisory costs incurred by the central bank in 2025, they will be reduced proportionally in 2026.