Dr Maria Chetcuti Cauchi

Biography

Maria leads a cross-departmental practice group whose expertise encompasses regulated finance & ICT - fintech.Maria had the opportunity of working on the more traditional legal aspects of financial services and banking as well as more modern typologies such as payment services and e-money institutions; gaming and blockchain and capital market aspects. She has experience advising financial institutions, high net worth individuals, start-ups & major private and public companies in: • payment services and electronic money • decentralised ledger technology & virtual currencies • funds and asset management • regulated gaming • capital markets. Maria is also active in intellectual property & technology transfer law and is a registered trademark & patent attorney & an approved European Patent Office (EPO) Attorney. Interesting and noteworthy projects include the setting up the first unit trust fund in Malta; setting up of the first bitcoin company; acting as lead partner and representing Shanghai Electric Power in Malta's largest FDI investment; working on Malta’s first listings on Prospects, the most recent capital market created by the Malta Stock Exchange; setting up various forex operations & acting as lead advisor on Fusion, the Malta Council for Science and Technology commercialisation programme. Maria is extremely interested in the application of traditional notions of IP Law to the online world, as well as the conversion of brick and mortar notions to the online realm. Current particular interests revolve around the application of traditional ledger systems to the world of block chain.  Maria is a member of the Institute of Financial Services Practitioners, the Society for Trusts & Estates Practitioners and the Chamber of Advocates and is also a registered trademark and patent attorney and an approved EPO European Patent Attorney. Specialities: Malta, International, investment services, financial services, credit institutions, funds, trademark, patent, Community Trademark, e-commerce, technology, ICT law.    

Research Interest

Finance