Investment firm
The investment firm ( English investment firm ) is in finance , a legal person , the professional investment services alone or together with ancillary services provides to third parties and / or investment activities exercises.
General
This legal definition of the investment firm comes from Article 4 (1) of Directive 2014/65 on markets in financial instruments of May 2014 ( MiFID II ). While in Germany by § 2 para. 10 WpHG credit institutions , financial services institutions and according to § 53 para. 1 sentence 1 KWG operating companies are referred to exclusively as investment services company in is Austria the investment firm specified in greater detail. The securities service company is standardized there in Section 4 WAG .
Investment firms make a major contribution to facilitating savings and investment flows in the EU Member States and are central to a well-functioning Capital Markets Union . Like credit institutions , according to the EU Commission , they provide a range of services that give investors access to securities and derivatives markets. These services include investment advice, portfolio management, execution of orders for clients, trading in financial instruments and helping companies raise funds in the capital markets . Unlike credit institutions, however, investment firms do not accept deposits or grant large-scale loans .
Legal issues
The name investment firm goes back to Directive 2004/39 / EC on markets in financial instruments, which is no longer applicable . According to Art. 4 Para. 1 No. 1, an investment firm is “any legal person who, in the context of their usual professional or commercial activity, provides one or more investment services for third parties and / or carries out one or more investment activities.” The legal definition for investment services companies can be found in section 2 (10) of the WpHG.
In Austria, the investment firm was taken over in § 3 WAG and defined as follows: "An investment firm is a legal entity that has its registered office and head office in Austria and ... is authorized to provide investment services and activities". In contrast to investment firms, the scope of activities of investment services companies is limited to investment advice (Section 3 Paragraph 2 Item 1 WAG) and the acceptance and transmission of customer orders (Section 3 Paragraph 2 Item 3 WAG) with regard to certain financial instruments . According to Section 3 (2) WAG, a banking license is only required if investment firms provide investment advice, portfolio management , acceptance of orders for financial instruments, a multilateral trading system or an organized trading system. Austrian credit institutions and investment firms are also entitled to conduct securities and financial analysis and other general recommendations on transactions in financial instruments (Section 3 (3) WAG).
German investment services companies, central counterparties and branches in accordance with Section 53 KWG are obliged to submit the annual financial statements to BaFin . Investment firms are also obliged to do this.
CRR investment firm
The CRR investment firm is based on Art. 4 Paragraph 1 No. 2 Regulation on Supervisory Requirements for Credit Institutions and Investment Firms, implemented in Germany by Section 1 Paragraph 3d KWG, which refers to this EU Regulation 2013/575. CRR institutes within the meaning of the KWG are CRR credit institutions and CRR investment firms . In Austria, CRR credit institutions and CRR investment firms also refer to this EU regulation in Section 1a (1) BWG .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ European Commission of December 20, 2017, Revised Framework for Investment Firms , p. 1 , accessed on October 31, 2019
- ↑ BaFin of August 18, 2019, notification and reporting requirements
