As of 3 January 2018 a new EU directive and regulation related to Financial Instruments, MiFID II and MiFIR, comes into force. The new legislation aims to strengthen investor protection, reduce risks and increase the efficiency of financial markets. The legislation revises and expands MiFID, which came into force in 2007.
In Norway, being part of EEA, the implementation of the new legislation will take some more time than in EU. However, DNB will adapt our business to become compliant MiFID II as of January 2018.
A significant development due to the new regulation is that any legal entity (e g companies, mutual funds, pension funds, foundations, organisations etc) trading in financial instruments (e g transferable securities, like shares/bonds, and derivatives, both exchange-traded and OTC) needs their own LEI. Entities without an LEI will not be able to trade financial instruments with DNB Markets from 2018. Note, however, that FX Spot is not included in the definition of “Financial Instrument”, meaning that entities that only trade spot are not required to get an LEI.
LEI can be issued by several providers, including, but not limited to:
For the time being, NordLEI has an offer to DNB-clients applying for LEI with them. If the client applies now, the LEI will be valid until December 31, 2018 instead of the ordinary term of one year from issuance. To use this offer our clients may use the campaign code DNBLEI2018 until October 20, 2017 when registering at https://www.nordlei.org/register-account.
More information about LEI and providers of LEI can be found at e.g. www.gleif.org and www.leiroc.org. The various providers of LEI will have more detailed information on terms and conditions on their webpages, in general there is one fee for establishing an LEI and one annual fee for maintaining it. Our clients may choose whichever provider they prefer. Each provider may need some time (weeks) to finalize registration. Hence, we recommend application as soon as possible if you like to be able to trade financial instruments in January 2018.
DNB Markets is part of the legal entity DNB Bank ASA, with LEI 549300GKFG0RYRRQ1414
Should you need more information on MiFID II or LEI, please contact your contact person in DNB Markets or send an e-mail to mifid2@dnb.no
