On 3 January 2018, the Directive on Markets in Financial Instruments (MiFID) II became applicable.

Financial intermediaries providing investment advice act as investment firms as defined by the MiFID II and have to comply with a set of MiFID II conduct rules. These concern, amongst others, remuneration, information requirements and professional knowledge. Independent advice is clearly distinguished from non-independent advice and there is a ban on commission for independent advice. The Directive foresees an opt-out regime. Firms that are regulated at national level and that do not hold clients’ money and only receive and transmit orders and/or provide advice, like many financial intermediaries, can be exempt by Member States from the MiFID II regime. Some MiFID II requirements, however, have to be applied in an “analogous” way to opt-out firms. The latter do not benefit from the MiFID II Single License to operate cross-border.

BIPAR and its Working Party on MiFID have been actively following the discussions and developments regarding MiFID II (levels 1, 2 and 3) and its review.