Investment Intermediaries Act, 1995

Prohibition on acting as an authorised investment business firm.

9.—(1) It shall be an offence for a company registered in the State or any other person operating in the State to act as an investment business firm, or to claim or to hold themselves out to be an investment business firm, in the State or outside the State unless that person is acting under and within the terms of an authorisation to do so which authorisation has been given—

(a) by a supervisory authority under section 10 or 13 of this Act, or

(b) by a competent authority in another Member State, for the purpose of Council Directive 93/22/EEC of 10 May, 1993(1) as amended or extended from time to time,

or that person is deemed to have been authorised under Part IV or Part VII of this Act.

(2) For the purposes of this section, an investment business firm shall not be regarded as operating within the State, where it is a firm which has no branch within the State and where—

(a) its head or registered office is in a state other than a Member State, or

(b) its head or registered office is in a Member State outside the State, and it is a firm which does not provide any investment business services in respect of which it is required to be authorised in its home Member State for the purposes of Council Directive 93/22/EEC of 10 May 1993(1) , or

(c) it is a firm which is authorised in a Member State outside the State, under Council Directive 93/22/EEC of 10 May 1993(1) , but which provides investment business services of a kind for which authorisation under that Directive is not available, when it is providing such services,

unless it is providing investment business services or investment advice to individuals in the State who do not themselves provide one or more investment business services or investment advice on a professional basis.

(1) O.J. No. L.141 11/6/93.

(1) O.J. No. L.141 11/6/93.