Commission Directive 2006/73/ECShow full title

Article 15 (Article 13(2) and first subparagraph of Article 13(5) of Directive 2004/39/EC)Service providers located in third countries

1. In addition to the requirements set out in Article 14, Member States shall require that, where an investment firm outsources the investment service of portfolio management provided to retail clients to a service provider located in a third country, that investment firm ensures that the following conditions are satisfied:

(a) the service provider must be authorised or registered in its home country to provide that service and must be subject to prudential supervision;

(b) there must be an appropriate cooperation agreement between the competent authority of the investment firm and the supervisory authority of the service provider.

2. Where one or both of those conditions mentioned in paragraph 1 are not satisfied, an investment firm may outsource investment services to a service provider located in a third country only if the firm gives prior notification to its competent authority about the outsourcing arrangement and the competent authority does not object to that arrangement within a reasonable time following receipt of that notification.

3. Without prejudice to paragraph 2, Member States shall publish or require competent authorities to publish a statement of policy in relation to outsourcing covered by paragraph 2. That statement shall set out examples of cases where the competent authority would not, or would be likely not to, object to an outsourcing under paragraph 2 where one or both of the conditions in points (a) and (b) of paragraph 1 are not met. It shall include a clear explanation as to why the competent authority considers that in such cases outsourcing would not impair the ability of investment firms to fulfil their obligations under Article 14.

4. Nothing in this article limits the obligations on investment firms to comply with the requirements in Article 14.

5. Competent authorities shall publish a list of the supervisory authorities in third countries with which they have cooperation agreements that are appropriate for the purposes of point (b) of paragraph 1.