The Law of Corporate Finance: General Principles and EU Law: Volume III: Funding, Exit, Takeovers

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122 4 Debt


and one of the forms of investment services covered by the MiFID is the “placing
of financial instruments”.^193 Money market instruments here mean “those classes
of instruments which are normally dealt in on the money market, such as treasury
bills, certificates of deposit and commercial papers and excluding instruments of
payment”.^194
However, the MiFID does not apply to corporate issuers of money market secu-
rities. The MiFID does not apply to investment activities that do not belong to the
regular business of the person.^195 Neither does the MiFID apply to “persons which
provide investment services exclusively for their parent undertakings, for their
subsidiaries or for other subsidiaries of their parent undertakings”;^196 or to most
persons who do not provide any investment services or activities other than deal-
ing on own account.^197
Regulated markets. Community law often refers to the concept of regulated
markets. The Member States’ domestic CP or euro CP markets typically do not
qualify as regulated markets.^198
For example, in order to be eligible as collateral for Eurosystem credit opera-
tions, marketable assets must comply with certain eligibility criteria.^199 One eligi-
bility criterion for marketable assets is that the debt instrument must be admitted
to trading on a regulated market as defined in the MiFID, or traded on certain non-
regulated markets specified by the ECB.


The European Commission publishes a list of all regulated markets in the Official Journal
of the European Union at least once a year, and makes the list of regulated markets avail-
able on its website.^200 The assessment of non-regulated markets is made by the Eurosystem
and is based on three principles: safety, transparency, and accessibility. As a result of re-
duced entry barriers and specialisation in trading segments, the list of regulated markets is
subject to great turnover.^201


Market abuse. The Directive on market abuse can apply to money market instru-
ments (for market abuse, see section 5.9.7 and Chapter 19).^202


(^193) Annex I, Section A of Directive 2004/39/EC (MiFID).
(^194) Article 4(1)(19) of Directive 2004/39/EC (MiFID).
(^195) Article 4(1)(1) of Directive 2004/39/EC (MiFID).
(^196) Article 2(1)(b) of Directive 2004/39/EC (MiFID).
(^197) Article 2(1)(d) of Directive 2004/39/EC (MiFID).
(^198) See Annotated presentation of regulated markets and national provisions implementing
relevant requirements of ISD (Council Directive 93/22/EEC) (2008/C 57/11); EFMLG,
The Money Market: Legal Aspects of Short-term Securities, Consultation Report (2
September 2002) pp 17 and 23.
(^199) Guideline of the European Central Bank of 31 August 2000 on monetary policy instru-
ments and procedures of the Eurosystem (ECB/2000/7) (as amended).
(^200) Article 47 of Directive 2004/39/EC (MiFID).
(^201) See Annotated presentation of regulated markets and national provisions implementing
relevant requirements of ISD (Council Directive 93/22/EEC) (2008/C 57/11).
(^202) Article 1(3) of Directive 2003/6/EC (Directive on market abuse).

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