fma.gv.at). This publication marks the beginning of the one-month period at the end of which these guidelines are also to be applied in Austria. In other words, they will be effective as of 2 June 2012.
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 at https://www.fma.gv.at/eu/esma-leitlinien/
Journalists may address further enquiries to:
Klaus Grubelnik (FMA Media Spokesperson)
+43/(0)1/24959-5106
+43/(0)676/882 49 516