On November 1 2007 entered into force on the European directive on investment services referred to MiFID – Markets in Financial Instruments Directive.
The main objective of the Directive is to promote greater transparency in financial markets and to strengthen the safeguards for investors by increasing disclosure requirements by brokers.
The MiFID requires special obligations of intermediaries, among which:
• the need to execute customer orders at the best possible conditions (cd. “best execution”);
• the need to classify customers into 3 categories which corresponds to a different level of protection: retail customers, professional clients and eligible counterparties;
• The need to identify and communicate to the client the possible conflict of interest, developing procedures to eliminate or minimize;
• The need to comply with new rules on incentives, that must be notified to the customer and these must be designed to improve the service provided.
In accordance with the provisions of MiFID have been prepared, Banks of the disclosure documents that are delivered to customers before the release of investment services.