Infrastructure for Governance
An infrastructure for governance is established at the level of the Apla platform ecosystem to ensure regulatory compliance and address cybersecurity issues across the Apla network.
Apla Consensus ASBL
Apla Consensus ASBL is a non-profit organization established in Luxembourg on 2 March 2018 (RCS Number F11724) at 45 rue Laurent Ménager, 2143 Luxembourg.
The association was created for the purposes of onboarding supervised financial institutions and validating nodes to the Apla platform ecosystem as well as defining AML/CFT compliance standards across the network. The latter become members of the association in accordance with the admission rules defined by the association. Each member has one vote in the decision making. The articles of association of Apla Consensus ASBL can be found on the www.apla.io website.
Supervised Financial Institutions
A Supervised Financial Institution can be either:
(i) an entity that is licensed or otherwise authorized by the financial market regulator in the country of its establishment to be engaged in payment services; or
(ii) an international, national or intergovernmental body or institution that engages in payment services, including central banks.
Apla blockchain stores a list of Supervised Financial Institutions in a specialized database table. This database table is administrated by Apla Consensus ASBL. All Supervised Financial Institutions become members of this non-profit organization. Apla policies set forth the detailed admission criteria and procedures for onboarding of Supervised Financial Institutions in the Apla Blockchain.
Supervised Financial Institutions are engaged in the following activities: onboarding of new members of the Apla platform ecosystem and ongoing AML/CFT compliance* control of the transactions with APL tokens.
Onboarding of new members
To ensure conformity with FATF (“Financial Action Task Force”) recommendations on AML/CFT compliance*, an Apla user (owner of a private key) of an ecosystem needs to complete the KYC procedure and be verified in order to obtain an APL Wallet.
The requirement of KYC verification for the purpose of onboarding and creation of an APL Wallet is a licensed practice in most jurisdictions. As regards the requirement of KYC verification of the members of the Apla users’ ecosystems, it is the responsibility of the founders of such ecosystems to assess the applicable regulatory rules and comply with the Apla Compliance Policy (please refer to the Apla Compliance Policy for more guidance).
Ongoing AML/CFT compliance
Although it is not required by the applicable laws, by way of self-regulation we established the requirement of Supervised Financial Institutions to apply a risk-based approach (“RBA”) to ongoing monitoring of transactions with APL tokens between the wallets of the members of the Apla platform ecosystem. The level of control may depend on a number of factors, including user category, the country risk (i.e., country membership in FATF), type of the transaction with tokens and applicable sanctions.
The RBA is automated through the application of the original Apla AML Filter. It may be adjusted by each Financial Institution to the regulatory requirements of the country where the institution is licensed to do business.
Before APL tokens are credited to the wallet of the recipient, the transaction will be processed through the AML filters administrated by the sender’s and recipient’s financial institutions. The latter will inquire additional justification for each transaction blocked by the AML filter. Ultimately, the level of compliance control in the Apla system will be the same as for transactions with fiat currencies.
Validating Nodes
A Validating Node can either be:
(i) an entity that is licensed or otherwise authorized in the country of its establishment to offer data center services to third parties; or
(ii) an entity that has a valid agreement for data storage and other processing services with the entity indicated in point (i) above.
A candidate must become a member of Apla Consensus ASBL prior to obtaining the status of Validating Node. The list of Validating Nodes on the Apla Platform is administrated by Apla Consensus ASBL.
Validating Nodes must adhere to minimum IT system standards compliant with ISO/IEC 27001.
The Validating Nodes engage in execution of the AEN Consensus Protocol for the benefit of all Apla users.
Apla Luxembourg
The developer of the source code of Apla blockchain and copyright owner of the platform design and architecture is EGAAS S.A. (the registered trade name is Apla). It is registered in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg at the address: 20 Rue de Bitbourg, L-1273 Luxembourg. Registration number in RCS Luxembourg: B 216 352.
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