GANADO Advocates

Managing Partner: Louis Cassar Pullicino
Number of partners: 21
Number of fee-earners: 80+ (incl. partners)
Total number of staff: 160+

Firm Overview:
GANADO Advocates is a leading commercial law firm with a particular focus on the corporate, financial services and maritime/aviation sectors, predominantly servicing international clients doing business through Malta. The firm also promotes other areas such as tax, pensions, intellectual property, employment and litigation.

The firm traces its roots back to the early 1900s, and is today one of Malta’s foremost law practices, consistently ranking as a leading firm in all its core sectors. GANADO Advocates has over the past decades contributed directly towards creating and enhancing Malta’s hard-won reputation as a reliable and effective international centre for financial and maritime services. Today, the firm continues to provide high standards of legal advisory services to support and enhance Malta’s offering.

Main Areas of Practice
GANADO Advocates consistently provides its clients, coming from various industry sectors, with specialist advice and practice. The practice areas handling fintech-based projects are highlighted below.

Financial Services:
Given its extensive experience in the financial services regulatory industry, the firm has recognised technology as being the main disrupting factor for the sector and has invested in being prepared for the fintech projects taking place in banking, payments, investments and insurance. With a staff complement of over 40 professionals focusing on financial services, the firm focuses extensively on specialisation in each of its sub-sectors. For this reason, GANADO Advocates is well placed to assist existing clients who wish to launch a fintech product as well as new clients seeking authorisation.

Payment & Electronic Money:
Over the past decade, GANADO Advocates has been very active in particular in assisting digital banks, payment institutions and electronic money institutions with all regulatory requirements as well as all aspects of their day to day needs including employment, outsourcing, consumer legislation and AML compliance obligations. More recently, the firm has assisted a number of companies with PSD 2 preparation and ensuring compliance with the various regulatory technical standards being issued on an ongoing basis. The firm has also been involved in a number of crowdfunding initiatives, assisting clients with the use of technology for their processes.

Blockchain & Cryptocurrencies:
More recently, the firm’s fintech and blockchain team has been focusing more and more on blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Malta has enacted three revolutionary bills, becoming the first jurisdiction to set-up a robust regulatory framework for this digital innovation, fostering a favourable environment for distributed ledger technology (DLT) platforms and related services. The firm is at the forefront of fintech and blockchain developments, working closely with regulatory entities and industry leaders to become fully equipped with legal knowledge in this new sphere. The team has been active within the area from its early days, and has since been assisting clients, local and international, with blockchain based projects and cryptocurrency enquiries. The firm’s fintech and blockchain team assists clients with the:
■ Preparation for compliance with the new blockchain and cryptocurrency laws
■ Legal and regulatory classification of clients’ cryptoassets including issuance of legal opinions
■ Setting up of blockchain oriented companies
■ ICOs and other Virtual Financial Assets
■ Setting up of crypto service providers, such as crypto exchanges, crypto brokers and crypto advisors
For a full list of the firm’s sectors and practices please visit: www.ganadoadvocates.com/expertise/

Key Contact:
Contact: Leonard Bonello
Tel: +356 21235406
Email: [email protected]