Following several enquiries, the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) states that it has launched a focus campaign for investor protection and directly addressed customers of investment firms and investment service providers in a letter, asking them for their help. The customers are asked to inform the FMA, by means of a questionnaire, as to which investment products they acquired via a certain investment service provider and to which accounts they transferred the funds to be invested. The representative sample addressed was randomly selected from the pool of customer data which the companies had submitted to the FMA.
“The aim of this focus campaign is to check whether the investment firms and investment service providers adhere to the prohibition of holding client funds,” says FMA Executive Director Kurt Pribil. The letter explains that “Pursuant to Article 3 para. 5 no. 4 of the 2007 Wertpapieraufsichtsgesetz (WAG 2007; Securities Supervision Act), in the interests of customer protection, investment firms and investment service providers are not allowed to accept or hold money, securities or other instruments from clients when providing investment services (such as investment advice and brokerage activities related to financial instruments)”. It continues by saying: “For instance, persons working for these companies (managers, employees, consultants, etc) must not personally accept any funds to be used to purchase financial instruments or have them transferred to their private bank accounts. Transferring such funds to one of the company’s business accounts is also not admissible.”
The FMA emphasises that this measure is part of the routinely performed investigations to protect investors. The Authority also points out that selection and inclusion of the companies was random and not founded on concrete suspicions.
“We wish to stress that the FMA guarantees to treat all replies from customers in the strictest confidence,” says Pribil’s co-director Helmut Ettl. “In particular, we are legally prohibited to forward such information to the tax authorities.”
“We are convinced that investors will fully support this measure to protect their own interests and that with this focus campaign we will be able to further improve supervision of investment firms and investment service providers,” state Ettl and Pribil in agreement.
For further information please contact
Klaus Grubelnik (FMA Media Spokesperson)
+43/(0)1/24959-5106