Creative Commons

This dissertation offers a detailed commentary of the legislation concerning Investment Firms providing investment services and products and focuses on the prudential and operational requirements imposed by the Investment Services Directive (93/22/EEC), the Markets in Financial InstrumentsDirective (2004/39/EC) and other relevant legislation. In particular, the dissertation addresses the following topics: (i) the Investment Services Directive, (ii) the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (“MiFID”), (iii) the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive Level 2 (Dir. 2006/73/EC) and (iv) the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (“MiFID II”). Under each topic the most important obligations of Investment Firms will be discussed. The obligations concerning Authorization, Rules of Conduct, Investors Protection, Outsourcing and Transparency issues will be further analyzed. Moreover, this dissertation aims at underlining some of the developments in the operation of Investment Firms in last decades proving that legislation systems try to cope with modern Financial Market needs. Keywords: ISD, MiFID I, MiFID II, Investment Firm.