Financial, revision of some provisions contained in the Regulation on markets, Consob
Consob approved (resolution no. 21028 of 3 September 2019) an intervention to revise certain provisions contained in the Market Regulation adopted with resolution no. 20249 of December 28, 2017.
The main changes made to the legislative text were subjected to a public consultation carried out in the period between 15 and 28 February last.
The review activity concerned, in particular:
(a) the regulation of the equity investments that can be held by the manager of the regulated market and the related disclosure obligations and
(b) the due communications regarding the exemption for ancillary activity in commodity derivatives.
With regard to point (a), that is the regulation of the connected and instrumental activities and of the shareholdings that may be held by the market manager, the modification intervention (see article 4, paragraph 2) determined an extension of the perimeter of the equity investments that can be held by manager of the regulated market, including investments in companies whose activity consists in the preparation and management of information circuits for the inclusion of trading conditions for financial instruments and which are authorized to receive and transmit orders.
To complete the rules on shareholdings that can be held and related and instrumental activities, some obligations of an informational nature have been introduced for the market manager, which concern in particular the organizational measures adopted by the manager to ensure the separation between the different areas of operations and to identify and manage any conflict of interest situations (see article 21, paragraph 1).
With reference, instead, in point (b), the change concerned the regulation of the functional communication to benefit from the exemption, provided by the Mifid II directive, for derivative activities on goods that are ancillary to the person’s main activity and of the group to which it belongs (see article 65, paragraph 4), in order to clarify the scope of the disclosure obligation and allow for easier compliance.
Furthermore, in light of the evidence accumulated in the actual functioning of the regulations and in the aim of pursuing a continuous improvement in the quality of regulation, the opportunity was taken to remedy a lack of coordination of the transitional provisions of the regulations relating to companies with listed shares that they are subject to the management and coordination of another company, contained in article 18, paragraph 1, of the Market Regulations.
More precisely, the provision for the eighteen-month period from the start of any management and coordination activity to comply with the conditions set by the regulatory framework has been eliminated, since the only transitional provision for the governance adjustments concerning the composition of the internal board committees already present in article 16, paragraph 3, of the same regulation, which identifies a term of thirty days following the first meeting for the renewal of the board of directors or the supervisory board.
Specific disclosure obligations to Consob and the public regarding compliance with the regulatory framework were then eliminated.
09 September 2019
Source Consob
