rec_11

(11) Directive 2014/65/EU allows persons that trade in commodity derivatives or emission allowances or derivatives thereof on a professional basis to make use of an exemption from the requirement to obtain authorisation as an investment firm when their trading activity is ancillary to their main business. Currently, persons applying for the ancillary activity exemption are required to notify annually the relevant competent authority that they make use of that exemption and to provide the necessary elements to satisfy the two quantitative tests that determine whether their trading activity is ancillary to their main business. The first test compares the size of an entity’s speculative trading activity to the total trading activity in the Union on an asset class basis. The second test compares the size of the speculative trading activity, with all asset classes included, to the total trading activity in financial instruments by the entity at group level. There is an alternative form of the second test, which consists of comparing the estimated capital used for the speculative trading activity to the actual amount of capital used at group level for the main business. For the purposes of establishing when an activity is considered to be an ancillary activity, competent authorities should be able to rely on a combination of quantitative and qualitative elements, subject to clearly defined conditions. The Commission should be empowered to provide guidance on the circumstances under which national authorities can apply an approach combining quantitative and qualitative threshold criteria, as well as to develop a delegated act on the criteria. Persons that are eligible for the ancillary activity exemption, including market makers, are those dealing on own account or those providing investment services other than dealing on own account in commodity derivatives or emission allowances or derivatives thereof to customers or suppliers of their main business. The exemption should be available for each of those cases individually and on an aggregate basis where the activity is ancillary to their main business, when considered on a group basis. The ancillary activity exemption should not be available for persons who apply a high-frequency algorithmic trading technique or are part of a group the main business of which is the provision of investment services or banking activities, or acting as a market maker in relation to commodity derivatives.

← rec_10 · All articles · rec_12 →

Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-25 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.