Amendments to the Consumer Protection Code arising from the transposition of MiFID II into Irish law

The Minister for Finance has decided to exercise the national discretion under Article 3 of Directive 2014/65/EU (MiFID II). This will allow certain firms to continue to be regulated under the Investment Intermediaries Act 1995 rather than under the European Union (Markets in Financial Instruments) Regulations 2017 (the MiFID Regulations 2017), provided they are subject to certain requirements that are analogous to requirements imposed on investment firms regulated under the MiFID Regulations 2017.

In June 2016, the Department of Finance consulted on the national discretion under Article 3 of MiFID II as part of its public consultation on MiFID II national discretions. The Department of Finance published its Feedback Statement to its public consultation on 14 July 2017. The Feedback Statement sets out the additional requirements to be imposed on firms availing of the Article 3 exemption. The Central Bank has now amended the Consumer Protection Code 2012 (the 2012 Code) to reflect these changes.

The following parts of the 2012 Code are now amended:

• Chapter 4 – Provision of information
• Chapter 9 – Advertising
• Chapter 12 – Definitions.

In addition, a new Chapter 14 is inserted.

This  Addendum is effective from 3 January 2018, the date of application of the MiFID Regulations 2017.

More information:

Investment Firms