Regulatory Alerts2003-08-21
Opinion on the necessity of appointing an agency, mandate, or other form of collaboration by financial intermediaries for the exercise of financial agency activities
Issued on August 21, 2003, the regulator clarifies that financial intermediaries must appoint only individuals registered in the Financial Agents List to conduct financial agency activities, thereby preventing unauthorized practice and criminal liability. The opinion mandates that any employees or collaborators utilized by these appointed agents must also be individually registered in the same list to prevent regulatory evasion through the separation of authority and promotional activities. Furthermore, appointed agents are required to provide prior notice to the appointing intermediary, including the personal details and registration credentials of any third parties they intend to use, subject to the intermediary's verification and approval.
OPINION OF 21 AUGUST 2003 Necessity of appointing an agency, mandate, or other form of collaboration by financial intermediaries for the exercise of financial agency activities
In order to avoid undesirable misunderstandings among industry operators, also taking into account the criminal consequences connected to the unauthorized exercise of financial agency activities under Article 3 of Legislative Decree No. 374/99, it is deemed appropriate to remind that the performance of the aforementioned activity, for which registration in the List provided for by the same Article 3 is indispensable, presupposes the appointment of an agency, mandate, or other form of collaboration, however named, by financial intermediaries registered in the General List or the Special List respectively provided for by Articles 106 and 107 of the Banking Consolidated Act. These intermediaries, therefore, cannot appoint individuals other than financial agents registered in the relevant List to promote contracts related to the financial activities provided for in Article 106 of the Banking Consolidated Act.
Appointments conferred on subjects other than natural persons registered in the List of financial agents may be carried out by them through their own employees or collaborators. In such cases, as well as in any other circumstance where the appointed agents intend to avail themselves of their own employees or collaborators to carry out the appointment, these latter must themselves be registered in the List of financial agents; this is in order to prevent forms of evasion of the regulation in question through the splitting of authority and promotional activities and their attribution to different subjects. Furthermore, the appointed agent must previously inform the appointing intermediary of the intention to avail themselves of third parties to perform the appointed task, indicating their personal details and the registration details in the List provided for by Article 3 of Legislative Decree No. 374 of 1999. The appointing intermediary, having carried out the necessary checks, communicates its approval to the agent for the performance of the appointment under the terms proposed.