Definition of investment advice: AMF updates its doctrine

Context

On 11 July 2023, ESMA published a Supervisory Briefing clarifying the definition of investment advice under the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) to replace the Q&A document on the same subject published in 2010 by the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR).

Changes made

Until now, only some of the points made in the CESR Q&A document were covered by position DOC-2008-23, which provided additional clarifications, in particular to take account of France's specific characteristics, notably with regard to the provision of this service by financial investment advisors. To make it easier for market participants to understand the criteria for defining this investment service, the AMF has consolidated the key factors for verifying whether each of the cumulative conditions is met into a single document (updated Position DOC-2008-23).

Position DOC-2018-03 on the placing of financial instruments without a firm commitment basis, investment advice and consultancy services provided to firms has also been updated to replace references to the CESR Q&A document.

It should be noted that the updates to these doctrines do not alter the substance of the criteria delimiting what constitutes an investment advice service. The AMF has already been applying the information contained in these for several years.

These updated positions are applicable from today. To help professionals understand the changes made to the policy, a redline version is also be published.