News and developments
MiFID 2 and its distinctive Luxembourg features
On 31 May 2018, the law on markets in financial instruments (the “2018 Law”) as well as the grand-ducal regulation relating to safeguarding of financial instruments and funds belonging to clients, product governance obligations and the rules applicable to the provision or reception of fees, commissions or any monetary or non-monetary benefits (the “Grand-Ducal Regulation”) were published in the Luxembourg official gazette.
On 31 May 2018, the law on markets in financial instruments (the “2018 Law”) as well as the grand-ducal regulation relating to safeguarding of financial instruments and funds belonging to clients, product governance obligations and the rules applicable to the provision or reception of fees, commissions or any monetary or non-monetary benefits (the “Grand-Ducal Regulation”) were published in the Luxembourg official gazette.
Such texts aim at implementing into Luxembourg law the EU Directive 2014/65 on markets in financial instruments (“MiFID 2”) and the EU Delegated Directive 2017/593 with regard to safeguarding of financial instruments and funds belonging to clients, product governance obligations and the rules applicable to the provision or reception of fees, commissions or any monetary or non-monetary benefits (the “Delegated Directive”).
Whereas the 2018 Law directly implements MiFID 2, Article 6 of the Delegated Directive (which relates to the inappropriate use of title transfer collateral arrangements) and some specific provisions of the EU Regulation 600/2014 on markets in financial instruments (“MiFIR”), the Grand-Ducal Regulation in turn implements the remaining provisions of the Delegated Directive.
In implementing the above, the 2018 Law notably amends in such context quite substantially the law of 5 April 1993 on the financial sector (the “LFS”) but also replaces the law of 13 July 2007 on markets in financial instruments, as amended. The Grand-Ducal Regulation replaces the grand-ducal regulation of 13 July 2007 on organisational requirements and rules of conduct in the financial sector.
In this context, the Luxembourg supervisory authority for the financial sector, the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (the “CSSF”) has in its newsletter of May 2018 already announced that the CSSF circular letters 07/302, 07/306 and 08/365 are now outdated as their content related to the former MiFID regime1.