Market Abuse Dictionary (Jargon)

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 party funds or transferable securities, that person may be considered to be an investment firm for the purposes of this Directive and of Regulation (EU) No 600/2014 only if, without prejudice to the other requirements imposed in this Directive, in Regulation (EU) No 600/2014, and in Directive 2013/36/EU, that person 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, that person must make provision for the protection of investors in the event of the firm’s cessation of business following the proprietor’s death or incapacity or any other such event;

Information:

(i)produced by an independent analyst, an investment firm, a credit institution, any other person whose main business is to produce investment recommendations or a natural person working for them under a contract of employment or otherwise, which, directly or indirectly, expresses a particular investment proposal in respect of a financial instrument or an issuer; or

(ii)produced by persons other than those referred to in point (i), which directly proposes a particular investment decision in respect of a financial instrument

(1)Transferable securities;

(2)Money-market instruments;

(3)Units in collective investment undertakings;

(4)Options, futures, swaps, forward rate agreements and any other derivative contracts relating to securities, currencies, interest rates or yields, emission allowances or other derivatives instruments, financial indices or financial measures which may be settled physically or in cash;

(5)Options, futures, swaps, forwards and any other derivative contracts relating to commodities that must be settled in cash or may be settled in cash at the option of one of the parties other than by reason of default or other termination event;

(6)Options, futures, swaps, and any other derivative contract relating to commodities that can be physically settled provided that they are traded on a regulated market, a MTF, or an OTF, except for wholesale energy products traded on an OTF that must be physically settled;

(7)Options, futures, swaps, forwards and any other derivative contracts relating to commodities, that can be physically settled not otherwise mentioned in point 6 of this Section and not being for commercial purposes, which have the characteristics of other derivative financial instruments;

(8)Derivative instruments for the transfer of credit risk;

(9)Financial contracts for differences;

(10)Options, futures, swaps, forward rate agreements and any other derivative contracts relating to climatic variables, freight rates or inflation rates or other official economic statistics that must be settled in cash or may be settled in cash at the option of one of the parties other than by reason of default or other termination event, as well as any other derivative contracts relating to assets, rights, obligations, indices and measures not otherwise mentioned in this Section, which have the characteristics of other derivative financial instruments, having regard to whether, inter alia, they are traded on a regulated market, OTF, or an MTF;

(11) Emission allowances consisting of any units recognised for compliance with the requirements of Directive 2003/87/EC (Emissions Trading Scheme).

(a)a spouse, or a partner considered to be equivalent to a spouse in accordance with national law;

(b)a dependent child, in accordance with national law;

(c)a relative who has shared the same household for at least one year on the date of the transaction concerned; or

(d)a legal person, trust or partnership, the managerial responsibilities of which are discharged by a person discharging managerial responsibilities or by a person referred to in point (a), (b) or (c), which is directly or indirectly controlled by such a person, which is set up for the benefit of such a person, or the economic interests of which are substantially equivalent to those of such a person

The following contracts and derivatives, irrespective of where and how they are traded:

(a)contracts for the supply of electricity or natural gas where delivery is in the Union;

(b)derivatives relating to electricity or natural gas produced, traded or delivered in the Union;

(c)contracts relating to the transportation of electricity or natural gas in the Union;

(d)derivatives relating to the transportation of electricity or natural gas in the Union.

Contracts for the supply and distribution of electricity or natural gas for the use of final customers are not wholesale energy products. However, contracts for the supply and distribution of electricity or natural gas to final customers with a consumption capacity greater than the threshold set out in the second paragraph of Article 2(5) of Regulation 1227/2011  shall be treated as wholesale energy products