Financial Markets Act (Transparency) Regulations, 2007

Suppliment tal-Gazzetta tal-Gvern ta’ Malta, Nru. 18,141, 30 ta’ Ottubru, 2007

L.N. 336 of 2007

FINANCIAL MARKETS ACT

(CAP. 345)

Financial Markets Act (Transparency) Regulations, 2007

IN exercise of the powers conferred by articles 3 and 49 of the

Financial Markets Act, the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance,

acting on the advice of the Malta Financial Services Authority as the

competent authority for the purposes of the Act, has made the following

regulations>

(1) The title of these regulations is the Financial Markets Title,

commencement and

Act (Transparency) Regulations, 2007.

objective.

(2) These regulations shall come into force on 1st

November, 2007.

(3) The objective of these regulations is to implement

Articles 44 and 45 of the Directive, as herein defined, and shall be

interpreted and applied accordingly.

(1)

In these regulations, unless the context otherwise Interpretation.

requires>

“the Act” means the Financial Markets Act<

“Commission Regulation” means Commission Regulation

(EC) No 1287#2006 of 10 August 2006 implementing Directive

2004#39#EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as

regards record-keeping obligations for investment firms,

transaction reporting, market transparency, admission of financial

instruments to trading, and defined terms for the purposes of that

Directive<

“the Directive” means Directive 2004#39#EC of the European

Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 on markets in

financial instruments amending Council Directives 85#611#EEC

and 93#6#EEC and Directive 2000#12#EC of the European

Parliament and of the Council and repealing Council Directive

93#22#EEC, as amended from time to time, and includes any

implementing measures that have been or may be issued thereunder<

“European investment firm” means an investment firm as

defined in Article 4(1) of the Directive, authorised by its European

regulatory authority within the meaning of Article 5 of the said

Directive<

“European right” means the entitlement of a person to establish

a branch, or provide services, in a Member State or EEA State

other than that in which it has its head office in terms of the

Directive<

“investment services licence holder” means a person in respect

of whom the competent authority has issued a licence in terms of

the Investment Services Act.

(2) Words and expressions which are also used in the Act shall

have the same meaning as in the Act.

These regulations set out the transparency requirements which

must be satisfied on a continuing and on-going basis by regulated

markets.

(1) Regulated markets shall make public current bid and

offer prices and the depth of trading interests at those prices which are

advertised through their systems for shares admitted to trading. This

information shall be made available to the public on reasonable

commercial terms and on a continuous basis during normal trading hours.

(2) Regulated markets may give access, on reasonable

commercial terms and on a non-discriminatory basis, to the arrangements

they employ for making public the information under sub-regulation

(1) of this regulation to investment services licence holders and European

investment firms that are obliged to publish their quotes in shares.

(3) The competent authority may waive the obligation for

regulated markets to make public information referred to in sub-

regulation (1) of this regulation based on the market model or the type

and size of orders as provided in the cases referred to in the Commission

Regulation. In particular, the competent authority shall be able to waive

the obligation in respect of transactions that are large in scale compared

with normal market size for the share or type of share in question.

(4) Regulated markets shall also comply with the applicable

provisions of the Commission Regulation as may be amended from

time to time.

(1) Regulated markets shall make public the price, volume Regulated Markets

Post-trade

and time of the transactions executed in respect of shares admitted to transparency

trading on a regulated market. Such details of all such transactions shall requirements.

be made public, on a reasonable commercial basis and as close to real-

time as possible.

(2) Regulated markets may give access, on reasonable

commercial terms and on a non-discriminatory basis, to the arrangements

they employ for making public the information under sub-regulation

(1) of this regulation to investment services licence holders and European

investment firms that are obliged to publish their transactions in shares.

(3) The competent authority may authorise regulated

markets to provide for deferred publication of the details of transactions

based on the type or size of these transactions. In particular, the

competent authority may authorise the deferred publication in respect

of transactions that are large in scale compared with the normal market

size for that share or that class of shares. Regulated markets shall obtain

the prior approval of the competent authority of proposed arrangements

for deferred trade-publication, and shall clearly disclose these

arrangements be to market participants and the investing public.

(4) Regulated markets shall also comply with the applicable

provisions of the Commission Regulation as may be amended from

time to time.

The Recognised Investment Exchange (Transparency) Repeal of L.N. 491

of 2004.

Regulations, 2004, are hereby repealed.

Mitbug[ fl-Istamperija tal-Gvern — Printed at the Government Printing Press

Lm0.08 (€0.19)