The aim of these guidelines is to ensure that the Markets In Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) and the Market Abuse Directive (MAD) are applied uniformly and consistently across all of the countries concerned. The areas covered by the guidelines include system requirements with regard to technical capacity, real-time monitoring, the training and knowledge of staff, risk management-related measures, and other areas. The guidelines, which relate to trading platforms and investment firms (as defined by MiFID) in an automated trading environment, deal with such phenomena as the provision of direct market access/sponsored access and “trading algorithms” and well as aspects such as the mere use of order entry systems, i.e. the actual operation of trading systems.  Additionally, the guidelines also affect companies that sell electronic trading systems to market operators or investment firms or act as the outsourced providers of such systems, and those companies that offer connectivity services to investment firms when accessing trading platforms.

These guidelines serve to interpret the underlying and specified ESMA rules in each case pursuant to MiFID (Directive 2004/39/EC) and/or MAD (Directive 2003/6/EC) and the national laws and ordinances adopted on the basis of this European legislation, such as the 2007 Wertpapieraufsichtsgesetz (WAG 2007; Securities Supervision Act) or the Börsegesetz (BörseG; Stock Exchange Act) in the case of Austria.

The guidelines can be found on the FMA website (in German) at
www.fma.gv.at/de/rechtliche-grundlagen/eu-rechtsakte/andere-relevante-eu-rechtsakte.html

Journalists may address further enquiries to:
Klaus Grubelnik (FMA Media Spokesperson)
+43/(0)1/24959-5106
+43/(0)676/882 49 516

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With regard to the position of the official within the structure of the organisation, the circular specifies that the anti-money laundering official is solely responsible to the managing directors (or the management board) and must report directly to them. The task of the anti-money laundering official within the company is to ensure compliance with the due diligence requirements that are aimed at combating money laundering and terrorist financing, and the corresponding required powers should be vested in the function. Concerning the compatibility with other functions, the circular stipulates that the individual holding the position can exercise more than one function simultaneously provided that consideration is given to ensure the availability of sufficient resources and to avoiding any conflict of interest. The position of anti-money laundering official, or individual responsibilities entailed in it, may be outsourced to other positions within the sector or group organisation provided that a qualified staff member with a minimum level of responsibilities and powers is appointed as a local contact person in each case. These minimum requirements are also detailed in the circular.

The circular has been prepared on recommendation by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

The circular can be downloaded in full (in German) from the FMA website at http://www.fma.gv.at/de/rechtliche-grundlagen/rundschreiben/geldwaescherei-terrorismusfinanzierung.html

Journalists may address further enquiries to:
Klaus Grubelnik (FMA Media Spokesperson)
+43/(0)1/24959-5106
+43/(0)676/882 49 516

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“We are very proud to host this anniversary event. “Particularly during periods marked by difficult economic conditions, cross-border cooperation is especially important for banking supervisors – not least in order to ensure a level playing field for the credit institutions,” FMA Executive Director Helmut Ettl announced.

A number of figures demonstrate the significance of the Central, Eastern and South-Eastern European market for Austrian banks. For instance, Austrian institutions are active in this economic area through a total of 68 subsidiary banks, which together accounted for a market share of 12.3% at the end of 2011. The figure represents aggregate total assets of approximately €270.1 billion.

The BSCEE Group was founded in 1991. Besides Austria, its members include: Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldavia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia and the Ukraine. Armenia will join the group at this conference.

Journalists may address further enquiries to:
Klaus Grubelnik (FMA Media Spokesperson)
+43/(0)1/24959-5106
+43/(0)676/882 49 516

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“This is an important step in the right direction. The FMA has been arguing for more stringent fines for a long time. Particularly in the financial sector we need to have fines that really hurt, in order to achieve the necessary level of discipline and establish an effective deterrent,” FMA Executive Director Helmut Ettl stated. Fellow Executive Board member Kurt Pribil added, “There are also ongoing efforts at the European level to increase and harmonise sanctions, with demands for a Europe-wide uniform minimum level of the highest fines for certain offences.” This was urgently necessary, he further explained, in order to avoid the risk of supervisory and sanction arbitrage within Europe. Europe should not offer any opportunities for side-stepping to markets where regulation, supervision and sanctions are not as stringent as in other markets, the FMA Executive Directors maintained.

The FMA issued 224 official penal decisions in 2011, amongst which the average fine was for € 4,500 and the maximum fine amounted to €  36,000. Administrative penalties totalled € 1.3 million in 2011.

Journalists may address further enquiries to:
Klaus Grubelnik (FMA Media Spokesperson)
+43/(0)1/24959-5106
+43/(0)676/882 49 516

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1. An application has been made to the Vienna Commercial Court to appoint a trustee for the new owners’ voting rights, currently suspended by virtue of law, with the mandate to represent the interests of the company.
2. An administrative decision will be issued to the bank, requiring it to restore compliance with statutory provisions and to demonstrate that the bank has owners who meet the requirements defining fit and proper ownership as set forth in the Bankwesengesetz (BWG; Banking Act).

In accordance with Article 70 para. 2 BWG, auditor Dorothea Rebmann had been appointed government commissioner to ALIZEE Bank AG by the FMA on 23 December 2012 with the mandate of protecting the financial interests of the bank’s creditors and to safeguard the assets entrusted to the supervised company. Ms Rebmann has now been instructed to ensure that the new qualified co-owners have no influence whatsoever on the business of the bank.

Anyone who wishes to take up a direct or indirect qualifying participation in a credit institution and who fails to advise the FMA of this in advance, disclosing the amount of the participation, in accordance with the requirements of the BWG, will face an administrative penalty of up to €30,000.

Journalists may address further enquiries to:
Klaus Grubelnik (FMA Media Spokesperson)
+43 (0)1 24959 5106
+43 (0)676 882 49 516

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“Transparent presentation of the premium plans and fees involved in building society contracts is an intrinsic factor in enabling consumers to compare different products,” FMA Executive Director Helmut Ettl pointed out. Executive Board colleague Kurt Pribil added: “By issuing these Minimum Standards, the FMA is taking a further step in its initiative for enhanced transparency.”

Before signing a building society savings contract, interested consumers are to receive a meaningful overview of the current savings plans and the differences amongst them as well as of interest rates and fees. Building societies are additionally required to disclose to prospective customers the consequences of terminating the contract prematurely. With regard to building society advertising, the FMA has ruled that such advertising must be provided in a manner that is clear, understandable and not misleading for the consumer with an average level of information. When amending their general terms of business for savings contracts, building societies must ensure that advertising materials are adapted immediately.

Individuals with existing building savings contracts are to be sent an account statement at least once a year. The statement must include items such as the initial balance, the amount of payments made to the account and of any withdrawals, the amount of the bonus provided by the state, the current balance, the contract amount and the contact information of the building society and of the building saver. The FMA also recommends that building societies notify building society savers, in a timely manner prior to the expiry of the minimum savings contract term, of the necessary steps for having the savings account balance paid out or for receiving a loan.

About 5.6 million people in Austria currently have a building society contract (about 5.2 million savings contracts and around 366,000 loan agreements). Building savings deposits are classified as deposits subject to guarantee obligations as defined in Article 93 para. 2 of the Bankwesengesetz (BWG; Austrian Banking Act), and are thus a safe, low-risk form of investment. The four building societies licensed in Austria concluded a total of almost one million new contracts during each of the years 2009 and 2010, with about 980,000 new contracts in the 2011 financial year.

The FMA-MS-BSPK may be viewed (in German) on the FMA website at http://www.fma.gv.at/de/rechtliche-grundlagen/wohlverhaltensregeln-compliance/rundschreiben.html.

Journalists may address further enquiries to:
Klaus Grubelnik (FMA Media Spokesperson)
+43/(0)1/24959-5106
+43/(0)676/882 49 516

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In the life assurance sector (including unit-linked and index-linked life assurance), a total of €1.74 billion in premium revenues was collected during Q4, which represents €163 million more than in Q3 but €119 million less than in the same quarter of the previous year. In total during 2011, a premium volume decrease of 7.2% (or €539 million) was recorded for this sector compared with 2010. This change is largely accounted for by unit-linked and index-linked life assurance (-21.1% in comparison with 2010). The volume of premiums collected for non-life and accident insurance was €1.66 billion during Q4, representing a decrease of €112 million compared with the previous quarter but an increase of €106 million when compared with Q4 of 2010. In this sector, the premium volume increased on the whole in 2011 compared with the previous year, by 4.81% or €364 million. The premium volume recorded for the health sector during Q4 of 2011 amounted to €423 million, an increase of €3 million over Q3 and of €15 million over Q4 of 2010. In a year-on-year comparison, the premium volume for health insurance was seen to grow by €58 million.

Premiums written outside Austria amounted to a total of €8.63 billion in 2011, compared with €8.16 billion in 2010. Of this total, €5.44 billion was accounted for by the balance sheet group of non-life and accident insurance and health insurance (€5.24 billion in 2010), while €3.19 billion was attributable to life assurance (2010: 2.92 billion). 

When the asset structure is viewed in detail, debt securities are seen to account for more than half of the entire portfolio. Roughly 20% of assets were in the form of investment funds and 12% in shares or securities equivalent to shares, with the remainder accounted for by real estate, loans and prepayments on policies, cash at bank and in hand, and hedge funds.

The technical account balance totalled approximately €295 million in 2011, which roughly equates to a 20% decrease in comparison with the previous year. A smaller amount of capital income was transferred to the technical account from the life assurance balance sheet group, so that the result from ordinary activities increased by €62 million to €1.16 billion. The financial result dropped to €2.96 billion, decreasing by 7.5% compared with 2010.

You can find the full Quarterly Report (in German) on the FMA website at: http://www.fma.gv.at/de/statistik-berichtswesen/statistiken-unternehmen/versicherungs-unternehmen.html

Journalists may address further enquiries to:
Klaus Grubelnik (FMA Media Spokesperson)
+43/(0)1/24959-5106
+43/(0)676/882 49 516

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The Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) has published a supervisory guideline to strengthen the sustainability of the business models of large internationally active Austrian banks today. This sustainability package, which was developed in cooperation with the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB), is aimed at increasing the capitalization of these banking groups over the medium and long term and rebalancing the refinancing structure of exposed subsidiaries. Moreover, the guideline will ensure that banking groups have adequate recovery and resolution schemes in place that may be required in future periods of distress.

The sustainability package currently applies to Erste Group Bank, Raiffeisen Zentralbank and UniCredit Bank Austria, given their size, systemic relevance and the complexity of their business models, which also apply to a large number of subsidiaries.

In line with the cornerstones of the guideline, which were published on November 21, 2011, the following three pillars will be implemented with respect to the above-mentioned banks:

• First, to strengthen the sustainability of banking groups’ capitalization, the Basel III standards on common equity tier 1 (CET1) capital must be fully implemented from January 1, 2013, without any related transitional provisions. However, any fully loss-absorbent private and government participation capital subscribed under the bank support package will be included in the capital base according to the transitional provisions. Furthermore, the banking groups will be subject to an additional capital surcharge of up to 3 percentage points of CET1 (depending on the riskiness of banks’ business models) from January 1, 2016.
• Second, to strengthen the refinancing structure of banking subsidiaries and to ensure that it is well balanced, the supervisory authority will continually monitor and analyze – based on quarterly data (starting from end-2011) – the ratio of net new lending to local stable funding. The analysis of past experience has shown that exceeding a reference ratio of 110% can be considered an alarm signal. The results of this monitoring exercise will be discussed and assessed with the competent host and home supervisors in the supervisory colleges to agree on any necessary supervisory measures.
• Third, to ensure that, in the event of crisis, a bank can be reorganized swiftly, effectively and efficiently or, if need be, wound up in an orderly manner, parent institutions are required to submit groupwide recovery and resolution schemes to the supervisory authority by the end of 2012 to prepare for potential crisis situations.

The Austrian supervisory guideline is part of the European supervisory regime. The findings of the regular monitoring exercises will be analyzed and discussed with the competent host and home supervisors in the supervisory colleges and with the European Banking Authority (EBA). On this balance, appropriate risk mitigation measures may have to be adopted and implemented, which ensures a differentiated, market-specific approach.

Developed by Austria’s supervisory authorities, the guideline was subject to an intensive and multi-layered consultation process involving the competent authorities in Austria and abroad, international financial institutions, the European Commission as well as the targeted banks.

The supervisory guideline is available on the websites of the FMA and the OeNB in English and in German. It is complemented by a description of its prudential and economic motivation, by an impact analysis as well as FAQs.

Journalists may address further enquiries to: 

Klaus Grubelnik (FMA)
+43/(0)1/24959-5106
+43/(0)676/882 49 516

Dr. Christian Gutlederer (OeNB)
+43/(0)1/404 20-6609
+43/(0)664/515 36 18

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Journalists may address further enquiries to:
Klaus Grubelnik (FMA Media Spokesperson)
+43/(0)1/24959-5106
+43/(0)676/882 49 516

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The total number of beneficiaries rose by 1.1% in Q4 to a level of approximately 792,000 individuals, 71,300 of whom were receiving pension benefits.

The largest share of the portfolio managed by Pensionskassen in Q4 was invested in government bonds or bonds guaranteed by state or regional governments (34.0%), shares (25.9%), corporate bonds (18.0%) and bank deposits or credit held with banks (11.7%). Compared with Q3, the share of government bonds or bonds guaranteed by state or regional governments showed the most striking change, dropping by 2.3%. The share of corporate bonds increased by 1.5%.

You can find the Quarterly Report (in German) on the FMA website at:   http://www.fma.gv.at/de/statistik-berichtswesen/statistiken-unternehmen/pensionskassen.html

Journalists may address further enquiries to:
Klaus Grubelnik (FMA Media Spokesperson)
+43/(0)1/24959-5106
+43/(0)676/882 49 516

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Included in the published figures are the fees customarily charged by investment firms, such as consulting fees, management fees, performance-related remuneration, brokerage fees that are independent of products and other fees charged directly to the customer. The survey also covers the entry fees customarily charged by issuers for products with high, medium and low levels of risk, as well as bonus payments, other fees charged and internal expenses. The customary fees charged by custodian banks, such as safe deposit charges, expenses and transaction fees, are also presented.

The charge ranges published by the FMA are intended as a guideline for customers when looking for investment services. Providers are required to direct their customers’ attention to the FMA publication, although they may also charge fees that vary from the listing.

According to law, this data must be gathered by the interest group of the financial service providers, the Association of Financial Service Providers of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (WKO). As specified in section 75 para. 8 of the 2007 Wertpapieraufsichtsgesetz (WAG; Securities Supervision Act), the FMA is required to publish on its website the customary charges in the form of ranges. The information is available (in German) at http://www.fma.gv.at/de/unternehmen/wertpapierdienstleister/spezialthemen/marktuebliche-entgelte.html

Journalists may address further enquiries to:
Klaus Grubelnik (FMA Media Spokesperson)
+43/(0)1/24959-5106
+43/(0)676/882 49 516

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Additionally, an amendment to the CDI 2007 has introduced the new concept of “compliance-relevant information”. As well as inside information, this also includes other “confidential, price-sensitive information” even if not all criteria for inside information have been met. The aim is to ensure that internal, non-public issuer activities with potential relevance to price are incorporated into the issuer’s compliance process from an early stage.

The Circular provides clear and practical information on how to design in-house compliance guidelines, how to structure compliance internally, and on the rights and duties as well as internal role of the Compliance Officer, a position that is required by law to be established in most companies. Detailed information is provided on when and how confidentiality areas should be set up, and on the approach to be adopted when disclosing compliance-relevant information. Also covered in detail is the issue of preparing a confidentiality declaration, ensuring that it is drawn up properly and in accordance with the statutory provisions. The Circular explains the cases in which blocking periods and trading bans are required and under which conditions exceptions from these can be granted. Finally, information is also included on the types of compliance training to be carried out by issuers.

The Circular can be downloaded in full (in German) from the FMA website at http://www.fma.gv.at/de/rechtliche-grundlagen/wohlverhaltensregeln-compliance/rundschreiben-sonstiges.html

Journalists may address further enquiries to:
Klaus Grubelnik (FMA Media Spokesperson)
+43/(0)1/24959-5106
+43/(0)676/882 49 516

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A total of 28 prospectuses (for dividend stocks and non-dividend stocks) were approved by prospectus supervision between 1 October and 31 December 2011, representing one more approval than in Q3 2011. In this way the legal basis was established for the issuing of a maximum volume of around €3.8 billion in securities. 21 supplements were published and approved, while two issuers withdrew their applications for prospectus approval or cancelled the public offering before the end of the subscription period due to a poor market response.
In 2011 a total of 104 prospectuses (2010: 100) and 65 supplements (2010: 48) were approved, and seven applications for approval were withdrawn (2010: 7).

In terms of issuing activity, the drop in the number of basis prospectuses between Q3 and Q4 stands out in particular. A basis prospectus establishes the framework for issuing a number of similarly structured securities, for which the individual terms of the offering may then be defined in each case just prior to issuing. The number of issuers in the category of building loan banks that turned to the capital market for funding rose from two in Q3 to five in Q4. In comparison, issuing activity remained about the same for bonds (Q3: 1; Q4: 0) as well as for IPOs, capital increases and listing prospectuses (Q3: 1; Q4: 2),
With regard to 2011 as a whole, the decline in the number of bond prospectuses approved by the FMA is particularly significant, dropping from seven in 2010 to two in 2011. There was a slight increase in the case of basis prospectuses as well as for IPOs, capital increases and listing prospectuses. The number of prospectuses issued by building loan banks remained unchanged.

Once a prospectus or a compulsory supplement is approved in one EEA Member State, for the duration of its validity it may be used for a public offering or admission to trading on a regulated market in any other EEA Member State as well. This presupposes that the competent authority in the respective host country (in Austria the FMA) is first notified. Specifically, a striking decrease was seen in the number of notifications, from 102 in Q3 to 61 in Q4. There was a noticeable increase in the number of supplements, which rose from 548 to 983.
A total of 386 notifications were received in 2011, representing a slight increase compared with the previous year, whereas the number of supplements increased from 1,789 to 2,482. The majority of incoming notifications to the FMA were submitted by the competent authorities in Luxembourg and in Germany.

The responsibilities of prospectus supervision include identifying any violations related to public offerings and to the advertising of securities or investments as well as any breaches of the obligations imposed by the Kapitalmarktgesetz (KMG; Capital Market Act ) with regard to the publication, reporting and depositing of documents. In this connection, administrative penal proceedings were conducted in eleven cases, and five reports were submitted to the public prosecutor’s office during Q4. The year 2011 as a whole saw 39 cases of administrative penal proceedings and 25 reports to the public prosecutor’s office 

You can find the full Quarterly Report (in German) on the FMA website at: http://www.fma.gv.at/de/statistik-berichtswesen/statistiken-unternehmen/prospektaufsicht.html

Journalists may address further enquiries to:
Klaus Grubelnik (FMA Media Spokesperson)
+43 (0)1 24959 5106
+43 (0)676 882 49 516

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