Italy Market Regulation

Our Italian regulatory team provides for a specialized legal assistance in the areas of banking (including private banking), financial and asset management services, all of which heavily interested by the recent introduction of new EU laws (such as, inter alia, MiFID (‘Markets in Financial Instruments Directive’), Market Abuse and Transparency Directives, and anti-money laundering legislation).

Market participants frequently rely on Orrick to structure their operations to comply with regulatory and legislative requirements.

Our lawyers handle on a daily basis all aspects of the regulation of markets, broker-dealers, financial firms, investment advisers and investment companies, including:

• Authorization procedures
• Relationship with competent regulatory authorities
• Internal operating procedures
• Drafting of client contracts and forms

Our counseling activities in this field may be summarized as follows:

• Providing full-service advice to banks and financial intermediaries in various contexts, including the setting up of a branch in Italy, the provision of services on a cross-border basis, the drafting of contractual platforms for the supply of investment services and financial products (such as, inter alia, units of hedge funds, OTC derivatives, etc.), internal reorganization processes, licensing, and litigation matters
• Advising clients on regulatory requirements and best-execution procedures, as well as on carrying out independent reviews of internal operating procedures, corporate governance, and supervisory systems
• Representing financial services firms in dealing with regulatory inquiries, investigations, enforcement proceedings, and civil litigation
• Drafting memoranda on the impact of new EU and Italian legislation on the corporate structure of clients and their actual or proposed offer of financial services/products to the public
• We are in continuous contact with staff of the key regulators, as well as other self-regulatory organizations. This allows us to resolve quickly questions requiring input from these bodies.