Through the Circular, CySEC informs the Cypriot Investment Firms (“CIFs”) that the European Banking Authority (the “EBA”), the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (the “EIOPA”) and the European Securities and Markets Authority (the “ESMA” and, together with EBA and EIOPA collectively referred to as the “ESAs”) published on 20.12.16 the Joint Guidelines (the “Guidelines”), with ref. no. JC/GL/2016/01, on the prudential assessment of acquisitions and increases of qualifying holdings in the financial sector as a prerequisite for convergent supervisory practices by establishing a harmonised list of information that proposed acquirers should include in their notifications to the competent supervisory authorities.
The Guidelines are aimed at clarifying the procedural rules and the assessment criteria, which were built on the sectoral requirements, to be applied by competent authorities for the prudential assessment of acquisitions and increases of qualifying holdings in the financial sector.
To this extent, even though the Guidelines are targeted to competent authorities, the procedural rules and evaluation criteria also intend to help firms by ensuring that the proposed acquirer knows what information will be required to provide to the competent authority in order to be able to assess the proposed acquisition in a complete and timely manner.
CySEC’s expects that: The CIFs shall make every effort to comply with the Guidelines, which will apply from 01.10.17 onwards.