As of 3 January 2018 a new EU directive and regulation related to Financial Instruments, MiFID II and MiFIR, came into force. The legislation shall 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, Finanstilsynet has adopted two sets of regulations mirroring the content of MiFID II and MiFIR.
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:
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
