Nordic Securities

The Finnish Ministry of Finance published a Report on the transposition of MiFID in June 2006 and sent it off for consultation. The proposed laws implement MiFID Level 1 and partly MiFID Level 2. The official draft law proposal follows, mifid-draft-bill-finland.pdf. FASD responded on 2006-09-07, FASD response 

The Finnish Ministry of Finance will probably publish their proposal (“the bill”) by November 2006 whereas the new Parliament will vote on the proposed legislation in the spring 2007. The proposed laws are expected coming into force on 2007-07-01. This will result in a transition period for the banks and investment firms of only four months instead of nine.

Most of MiFID Level 2 will be implemented by the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) standards. The Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) has launched a project the aim of which is to implement MiFID Level 2. The FSA will probably establish working groups where market participants will be represented in order to assist FSA in their regulation work.

Implementation of the Directive on Markets in Financial Instruments in Finland (MiFID) In Finnish In Swedish

The task of the working group was to prepare a proposal for legislation necessary for the implementation of the Directive on Markets in Financial Instruments (2004/39/EC).

The Directive will be implemented in Finland by amending securities legislation and a few other statutes. To a large extent the Directive will also be implemented by means of regulations issued by the Finnish Financial Supervision Authority. The working group report contains proposals concerning the essential provisions to be included in current legislation, as well as detailed reasons to be included in a Government legislative bill. Furthermore, the working group has drawn up a background memo that to a large extent fulfils the requirements concerning what explanations and reasons shall be given in a Government legislative bill. That memo deals with current legislation in force, with the content of the Directive, with the needs for amended legislation because of that Directive and the essential arguments why Finnish legislation will have to be amended.

The most important modifications of legislation concern the regulation of market places and investment services. In addition to provisions on public trading, the Securities Market Act shall be amended to contain provisions on multilateral trading, as provided for in the Directive. The working group proposes that a new chapter 3 a shall be added to the Securities Market Act. The new chapter shall contain provisions concerning the organization of multilateral trading, acceptance of trading partners, acceptance of securities as objects of trading, the obligations concerning information to be provided by issuers of securities, as well as concerning the procedures to be applied in trading. The provisions of the Directive concerning regulated markets, internal execution of transactions, transparency of trading, procedures to be applied when supplying investment services and concerning clearing of transactions require several modifications also of other legislation.

The working group proposes that the Act on Investment Service Companies shall be completely reformed. The new act will modify the provisions concerning investment service companies and their business so as to be compatible with the provisions of the Directive. The most important modifications concern an extension of the scope of investment services that are subject to authorization so as to include investment counselling and the organization of multilateral trading. Further modifications cover the provisions on the organization of investment service companies’ business, e.g. dispute settlement, the prerequisites for outsourcing, and provisions on the use of investment service agents. As provided for in the Directive, also commodity derivatives will be objects of investment services. Furthermore, the provisions concerning investment service companies’ capital will be specified so as to comply with the Directive.