The German Federal Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht – BaFin) plans to amend its circular regarding the Minimum Requirements for the Compliance Function and Additional Requirements Governing Rules of Conduct, Organisation and Transparency pursuant to sections 31 et seq. of the Securities Trading Act (Wertpapierhandelsgesetz – WpHG) for Investment Services Enterprises (MaComp).

Bafin has commenced the consultation process with a new clause 6 being added to BT 3.2 of MaComp. The rule pertains to an Investment Services Enterprise (Wertpapierdienstleistungsunternehmen) that forwards to its customers information provided by a third party. The Investment Services Enterprises do not have to adhere to section 31 (2) WpHG (see consolidated version of the proposed new draft WpHG here) and section 4 of the Regulation specifying Rules of Conduct and Organisational Requirements for Investment Services Enterprises (Wertpapierdienstleistungs-Verhaltens- und Organisationsverordnung – WpDVerOV). However, under the proposed new rule, the Investment Services Enterprise is obliged to clearly indicate in bold letters that it is solely forwarding information by a third party without having verified it.

Some parts of BT 5 of MaComp shall be amalgamated as some of its definitions are now contained in the Market Abuse Regulation.

Market participants have until 14 December 2016 to submit their comments on the planned amendments.