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Article 4
Definitions
1. For the purposes of this Directive, the following definitions shall apply:
1) ‘Investment firm’ means any legal person whose regular occupation or business is the provision of one or more investment services to third parties and/or the performance of one or more investment activities on a professional basis;
Member States may include in the definition of investment firms undertakings which are not legal persons, provided that:
(a) their legal status ensures a level of protection for third parties' interests equivalent to that afforded by legal persons, and
(b) they are subject to equivalent prudential supervision appropriate to their legal form.
However, where a natural person provides services involving the holding of third parties' funds or transferable securities, he may be considered as an investment firm for the purposes of this Directive only if, without prejudice to the other requirements imposed in this Directive and in Directive 93/6/EEC, he complies with the following conditions:
(a) the ownership rights of third parties in instruments and funds must be safeguarded, especially in the event of the insolvency of the firm or of its proprietors, seizure, set-off or any other action by creditors of the firm or of its proprietors;
(b) the firm must be subject to rules designed to monitor the firm's solvency and that of its proprietors;
(c) the firm's annual accounts must be audited by one or more persons empowered, under national law, to audit accounts;
(d) where the firm has only one proprietor, he must make provision for the protection of investors in the event of the firm's cessation of business following his death, his incapacity or any other such event;
2) ‘Investment services and activities’ means any of the services and activities listed in Section A of Annex I relating to any of the instruments listed in Section C of Annex I;
The Commission shall determine, acting in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 64(2):
— the derivative contracts mentioned in Section C 7 of Annex I that have the characteristics of other derivative financial instruments, having regard to whether, inter alia, they are cleared and settled through recognized clearing houses or are subject to regular margin calls
— the derivative contracts mentioned in Section C 10 of Annex I that have the characteristics of other derivative financial instruments, having regard to whether, inter
alia, they are traded on a regulated market or an MTF, are cleared and settled through recognised clearing houses or are subject to regular margin calls;
3) ‘Ancillary service’ means any of the services listed in Section B of Annex I;
4) ‘Investment advice’ means the provision of personal recommendations to a client, either upon its request or at the initiative of the investment firm, in respect of one or more transactions relating to financial instruments;
5) ‘Execution of orders on behalf of clients’ means acting to conclude agreements to buy or sell one or more financial instruments on behalf of clients;
6) ‘Dealing on own account’ means trading against proprietary capital resulting in the conclusion of transactions in one or more financial instruments;
7) ‘Systematic internaliser’ means an investment firm which, on an organised, frequent and systematic basis, deals on own account by executing client orders outside a regulated
market or an MTF;
8) ‘Market maker’ means a person who holds himself out on the financial markets on a continuous basis as being willing to deal on own account by buying and selling financial instruments against his proprietary capital at prices defined by him;
9) ‘Portfolio management’ means managing portfolios in accordance with mandates given by clients on a discretionarydiscretionary client-by-client basis where such portfolios include one or more financial instruments;
10) ‘Client’ means any natural or legal person to whom an investment firm provides investment and/or ancillary services;
11) ‘Professional client’ means a client meeting the criteria laid down in Annex II;
12) ‘Retail client’ means a client who is not a professional client;
13) ‘Market operator’ means a person or persons who manages and/or operates the business of a regulated market. The market operator may be the regulated market itself;
14) ‘Regulated market’ means a multilateral system operated and/or managed by a market operator, which brings together or facilitates the bringing together of multiple
third-party buying and selling interests in financial instruments
– in the system and in accordance with its nondiscretionary rules – in a way that results in a contract, in respect of the financial instruments admitted to trading under its rules and/or systems, and which is authorized and functions regularly and in accordance with the provisions of Title III;
15) ‘Multilateral trading facility (MTF)’ means a multilateral system, operated by an investment firm or a market operator, which brings together multiple third-party buying
and selling interests in financial instruments – in the system and in accordance with non-discretionary rules – in a way that results in a contract in accordance with the provisions of Title II;
16) ‘Limit order’ means an order to buy or sell a financial instrument at its specified price limit or better and for a specified size;
17) ‘Financial instrument’ means those instruments specified in Section C of Annex I;
18) ‘Transferable securities’ means those classes of securities which are negotiable on the capital market, with the exception of instruments of payment, such as:
(a) shares in companies and other securities equivalent to shares in companies, partnerships or other entities, and depositary receipts in respect of shares;
(b) bonds or other forms of securitised debt, including depositary receipts in respect of such securities;
(c) any other securities giving the right to acquire or sell any such transferable securities or giving rise to a cash settlement determined by reference to transferable securities,
currencies, interest rates or yields, commodities or other indices or measures;
19) ‘Money-market instruments’ means those classes of instruments which are normally dealt in on the money market, such as treasury bills, certificates of deposit and commercial papers and excluding instruments of payment;
20) ‘Home Member State’ means:
(a) in the case of investment firms:
(i) if the investment firm is a natural person, the Member State in which its head office is situated;
(ii) if the investment firm is a legal person, the Member State in which its registered office is situated;
(iii) if the investment firm has, under its national law, no registered office, the Member State in which its head office is situated;
(b) in the case of a regulated market, the Member State in which the regulated market is registered or, if under the law of that Member State it has no registered office, the Member State in which the head office of the regulated market is situated;
21) ‘Host Member State’ means the Member State, other than the home Member State, in which an investment firm has a branch or performs services and/or activities or the
Member State in which a regulated market provides appropriate arrangements so as to facilitate access to trading onits system by remote members or participants established
in that same Member State;
22) ‘Competent authority’ means the authority, designated by each Member State in accordance with Article 48, unless otherwise specified in this Directive;
23) ‘Credit institutions’ means credit institutions as defined under Directive 2000/12/EC;
24) ‘UCITS management company’ means a management company as defined in Council Directive 85/611/EEC of 20 December 1985, on the coordination of laws, regulations and administrative provisions relating to undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities (UCITS) (1);
25) ‘Tied agent’ means a natural or legal person who, under the full and unconditional responsibility of only one investment firm on whose behalf it acts, promotes investment
and/or ancillary services to clients or prospective clients, receives and transmits instructions or orders from the client in respect of investment services or financial instruments, places financial instruments and/or provides advice to clients or prospective clients in respect of those financial instruments or services;
26) ‘Branch’ means a place of business other than the head office which is a part of an investment firm, which has no legal personality and which provides investment services
and/or activities and which may also perform ancillary services for which the investment firm has been authorised;
all the places of business set up in the same Member State by an investment firm with headquarters in another Member State shall be regarded as a single branch;
27) ‘Qualifying holding’ means any direct or indirect holding in an investment firm which represents 10% or more of the capital or of the voting rights, as set out in Article 92 of Directive 2001/34/EC, or which makes it possible to exercise a significant influence over the management of the investment firm in which that holding subsists;
28) ‘Parent undertaking’ means a parent undertaking as defined in Articles 1 and 2 of Seventh Council Directive 83/349/EEC of 13 June 1983 on consolidated accounts (2);
29) ‘Subsidiary’ means a subsidiary undertaking as defined in Articles 1 and 2 of Directive 83/349/EEC, including any subsidiary of a subsidiary undertaking of an ultimate parent undertaking;
30) ‘Control’ means control as defined in Article 1 of Directive 83/349/EEC;
31) ‘Close links’ means a situation in which two or more natural or legal persons are linked by:
(a) participation which means the ownership, direct or by way of control, of 20% or more of the voting rights or capital of an undertaking,
(b) control which means the relationship between a parent undertaking and a subsidiary, in all the cases referred to in Article 1(1) and (2) of Directive 83/349/EEC, or a similar relationship between any natural or legal person and an undertaking, any subsidiary undertaking of a subsidiary undertaking also being considered a subsidiary of the parent undertaking which is at the head of those undertakings.
A situation in which two or more natural or legal persons are permanently linked to one and the same person by a control relationship shall also be regarded as constituting a
close link between such persons.
2. In order to take account of developments on financial markets, and to ensure the uniform application of this Directive, the Commission, acting in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 64(2), may clarify the definitions laid
down in paragraph 1 of this Article.
MIFID - Article 4 - Definitions
