Environment and regulated sectors

Voluntary carbon market

Decree-Law 4/2024 of January 5 established the voluntary carbon market, providing for a tradable carbon credits mechanism to encourage carbon sequestration. The regime has since been amended and regulated, and its electronic platform is expected to start operating in 2025.

Waste

Amendments to the waste management regimes introduced by Decree-Law 24/2024 of March 26, which also have an impact on waste disposal in landfills and the reduction of plastic products in the environment.

Water supply and sanitation

On October 23, Decree-Law 77/2024 was published, which establishes the tariffs and tariff yields for multi-municipal water supply and sanitation systems for 2024 and amends the statutes of the Water and Waste Services Regulatory Authority, strengthening its powers in the area of tariffs. 

 

Banking, finance and capital markets

Non-performing loans (NPL)

The NPL Directive entered into force in 2021 and is waiting to be transposed into Portuguese law. On July 24, the EBA published its final report amending the Guidelines, the main aspects of which are summarized in the post The Evolution of the NPL Directive. 

Cryptoassets

Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 of the European Parliament and of the Council (“MiCA”) establishes a European regulatory framework for the issuance and admission to trading of cryptoassets, and providing services related to them. MiCA takes full effect on December 30.

Prevalence of mortgages over retention rights

Decree-Law 48/2024 of July 25 amended the legal regime on the right of retention over real estate, limiting the situations in which it prevails over a previously registered mortgage.

Asset management regime

On January 1, Securities Market Commission (“CMVM”) Regulation 7/2023—regulating the new asset management regime (“RGA”)—entered into force.

The RGA was amended by Decree-Law 89/2024. This decree-law allows large management companies to invest amounts exceeding the amount of own funds required by law, provided that the investment is ancillary to the main activity and conflicts of interest are prevented. The CMVM is responsible for regulating the terms under which this activity can take place.

Listing Act

On October 8, 2024, the European Council approved the Listing Act, a package of legislative measures which (i) reviews the Prospectus Regulation, the Market Abuse Regulation, MiFIR and MiFID II, (ii) introduces a new directive harmonizing the regulation on multiple vote share structures, and (iii) repeals the Listing Directive (as defined below). This legislative package is part of the Capital Markets Union project and aims to simplify access to EU capital markets, making them more attractive for companies, especially SMEs. Ultimately, the goal is to enable companies to diversify funding sources, therefore reducing bank lending in the EU economy.

 

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