MIFID
GREATER PROTECTION FOR INVESTORS: THE MARKET IN FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS DIRECTIVE – MIFID and MIFID II
The European Union has long intended to create a single market for financial services and activities in all European countries, and for this reason, on November 1, 2007, a new Directive came into force in Italian law: Market in financial instruments directive 2004/39/EU (so-called MiFID Directive) and on August 26, 2017, the MIFID II Directive (2014/65/EU).
As of January 3, 2018, the new MiFID II Directive (2014/65/EU) came into force throughout the Union, which, together with MiFIR or Markets in financial instruments regulation (EU Regulation No. 600/2014) took the place of the previous European regulations.
It is up to the individual member states of the Union to transpose the new EU rules, with national regulations being adapted.
Various are the areas of interest: supervision of intermediaries, renewal of investment services and activities, changes on financial market discipline and rules of conduct of Intermediaries. The most important changes concern:
· how investors are classified and protected
· what information Intermediaries and investors need to exchange.
INVESTOR CLASSIFICATION AND PROTECTION
The new regulations stipulate that each Intermediary shall re-classify its investors according to their characteristics and financial expertise. Three categories are provided, in ascending order of competence: retail (non-professional) clients, professional clients, and eligible counterparties; the Intermediary must provide the greatest protection to non-professional investors.
WHAT THE INVESTOR SHOULD KNOW
The Client must be informed about the mode of order transmission by Valori Asset Management; decide whether to accept it and, if so, explicitly declare it. In addition, the regulations oblige intermediaries to handle orders to buy or sell financial instruments under the best possible conditions (best execution).
The advisory service, i.e., the provision of personalized recommendations on financial transactions, is regulated; and only an Intermediary expressly authorized by the Supervisory Authority such as Valori Asset Management can perform the investment advisory service.
WHAT THE COMPANY NEEDS TO KNOW FROM ITS INVESTORS
In order to protect its interests, the COMPANY should ask its investors for the information necessary to verify the appropriateness and adequacy of the transactions arranged by clients as well as the risk profile of the investment related to the portfolio management service, if any, chosen by the Client.
Through an in-depth interview and the completion of two separate questionnaires (so-called Appropriateness Interview and Appropriateness Interview, jointly MiFid interview), we will check together your investment knowledge and experience, your investment goals, and your financial situation, and accompany you in identifying an investment choice that is appropriate for you.
Finally, in the provision of investment services, Intermediaries must establish appropriate organizational measures to prevent and manage conflict-of-interest situations, and, if such measures are not sufficient to ensure, with reasonable certainty, that the risk of harm to the interests of clients is avoided, proceed to the disclosure to clients of the nature and sources of such conflicts.