Following on from the September 2016 revision of the Cyprus Investment Scheme (CIS) program qualification criteria, the Cyprus government, following the recommendations of investcyprus.org (the government investment promotion agency) has taken a step towards establishing a “soft regulation” for the program’s stakeholders.
In summary, it has been decided that a formal list of “approved service providers” will be established, all of whom will have to be bound by a set code of professional and ethical conduct. There will be an oversight board which will be responsible for the continuous oversight of the adherence of both service providers and investors with the relevant CIS criteria and rules. They will also be responsible for receiving and examining complains from investors and other interested parties.
Further to the above, it has been decided that advertising of the program will be prohibited – an important decision that will hopefully stop the often misleading and aggressive advertising and promotion of the program by some of the developers and agents out there. The above steps above are, in our opinion, important as they aim towards having investors properly represented and informed, the program properly presented and promoted, and the relevant stakeholders held accountable for their actions or inactions.