Council Directive 93/22/EEC of 10 May 1993 on investment services in the securities field

• Published date: 11 June 1993
• Official Gazette Publication: Official Journal of the European Communities, L 141, 11 June 1993

1993L0022 — EN — 11.02.2003 — 004.001 — 1

This document is meant purely as a documentation tool and the institutions do not assume any liability for its contents

►B COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 93/22/EEC

of 10 May 1993

on investment services in the securities field

(OJ L 141, 11.6.1993, p. 27)

Amended by:

Official Journal

No page date

►M1 European Parliament and Council Directive 95/26/EC of 29 June 1995 L 168 7 18.7.1995

►M2 Directive 97/9/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3

March 1997

L 84 22 26.3.1997

►M3 Directive 2000/64/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of

7 November 2000

L 290 27 17.11.2000

►M4 Directive 2002/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of

16 December 2002

L 35 1 11.2.2003

Corrected by:

►C1 Corrigendum, OJ L 170, 13.7.1993, p. 32 (93/22/EEC)

►C2 Corrigendum, OJ L 194, 3.8.1993, p. 27 (93/22/EEC)

▼B

COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 93/22/EEC

of 10 May 1993

on investment services in the securities field

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic

Community, and in particular Article 57 (2) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (1),

In cooperation with the European Parliament (2),

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social

Committee (3),

Whereas this Directive constitutes an instrument essential to the

achievement of the internal market, a course determined by the Single

European Act and set out in timetable form in the Commission's White

Paper, from the point of view both of the right of establishment and of

the freedom to provide financial services, in the field of investment

firms;

Whereas firms that provide the investment services covered by this

Directive must be subject to authorization by their home Member

States in order to protect investors and the stability of the financial

system;

Whereas the approach adopted is to effect only the essential harmoni-

zation necessary and sufficient to secure the mutual recognition of

authorization and of prudential supervision systems, making possible

the grant of a single authorization valid throughout the Community

and the application of the principle of home Member State supervision;

whereas, by virtue of mutual recognition, investment firms authorized

in their home Member States may carry on any or all of the services

covered by this Directive for which they have received authorization

throughout the Community by establishing branches or under the

freedom to provide services;

Whereas the principles of mutual recognition and of home Member

State supervision require that the Member States' competent authorities

should not grant or should withdraw authorization where factors such

as the content of programmes of operations, the geographical distribu-

tion or the activities actually carried on indicate clearly that an

investment firm has opted for the legal system of one Member State

for the purpose of evading the stricter standards in force in another

Member State within the territory of which it intends to carry on or

does carry on the greater part of its activities; whereas, for the purposes

of this Directive, an investment firm which is a legal person must be

authorized in the Member State in which it has its registered office;

whereas an investment firm which is not a legal person must be author-

ized in the Member State in which it has its head office; whereas, in

addition, Member States must require that an investment firm's head

office must always be situated in its home Member State and that it

actually operates there;

Whereas it is necessary, for the protection of investors, to guarantee the

internal supervision of every firm, either by means of two-man

management or, where that is not required by this Directive, by other

mechanisms that ensure an equivalent result;

Whereas in order to guarantee fair competition, it must be ensured that

investment firms that are not credit institutions have the same freedom

to create branches and provide services across frontiers as is provided

for by the Second Council Directive (89/646/EEC) of 15 December

1989 on the coordination of laws, regulations and administrative provi-

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(1) OJ No C 43, 22. 2. 1989, p. 7; and OJ No C 42, 22. 2. 1990, p. 7.

(2) OJ No C 304, 4. 12. 1989, p. 39; and OJ No C 115, 26. 4. 1993.

(3) OJ No C 298, 27. 11. 1989, p. 6.