Austria
 Belgium
 Bulgaria
 Cyprus
 Czech Republic
 Denmark
 Estonia
 Finland
 France
 Germany

 Greece
 Hungary
 Iceland
 Ireland
 Italy
 Liechtenstein
 Latvia
 Lithuania
 Luxembourg
 Malta

 Netherlands
 Norway
 Poland
 Portugal
 Romania
 Slovakia
 Slovenia
 Spain
 Sweden
 United Kingdom

The course covers directives and regulations of the European Union with important extraterritorial application. It is highly recommended for all managers and professionals from countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA) who provide, or want to provide, financial services to the half billion of citizens of the 30 countries of the European Economic Area (EEA).

The course has been designed to provide with the knowledge and skills needed to understand the European Union’s directives and regulations that give opportunities for regulatory arbitrage and competitive advantage to banks, financial organizations, hedge funds, collective investment firms and SIVs of countries outside the European Economic Area.

3 Days, 09:00 to 17:00.

• Introduction
• Understanding the directives and the regulations of the European Union that affect the countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA)
• The European Union’s Financial Services Action Plan (FSAP)
• The most important directives
• The Lamfalussy process
• What is new, what is different for banks and financial organizations outside the European Economic Area

• The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID)
• From the Investment Services Directive (ISD) to MiFID: What is different now
• From the “know your customer” requirements to the new client classification, suitability and appropriateness
• Conduct of Business (COB) obligations
• The Regulation for National Market System (Reg NMS) in the United States and the MiFID in EU – a flat world?
• MiFID and options, futures, swaps, forward rate agreements, and other derivative contracts
• Extraterritorial Application of MiFID
• Challenges and opportunities for countries outside the European Economic Area
• MiFID and investment products authorized under different regimes 
• Hedge Funds in the European Economic Area (EEA) after MiFID
• New challenges for Hedge Fund managers
• MiFID and competitive advantage - Recommendations for banks and financial organizations of the Offshore Financial Centers

• Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities Directive (UCITS III)
• UCITS III and funds sold across the EU member states
• Funds designed for pan-European distribution to retail investors
• A passport to operate and market freely within the EEA that is easier to obtain (and cheaper)
• Establishing a fund in one EEA member state like Ireland or Luxembourg
• Permitted Activities of Management Companies
• EU Passport for Management Companies
• Tax implications of UCITS III
• Expanded permissible asset classes and broader scope of investment possibilities
• Although not directly applicable outside the EEA, jurisdictions (like Switzerland and Hong Kong) recognize UCITS – the reasons
• Funds of Funds
• Opportunities and Challenges

• The 8^th Company Law Directive
• The European Union’s Sarbanes-Oxley Act (E-SOX)
• Non-European companies listed in any country of the EEA have to comply with the 8th company law directive
• Which are the extremely important extraterritorial consequences
• How and why several Offshore Financial Centers enact legislation to prove that they have an “equivalent level of regulation”
• Auditors that audit offshore companies with EU listings
• The Offshore Financial Centers and the importance of Articles 45 and 46
• The role of the board of directors and executive management
• From the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) to the European Group of Auditors’ Oversight Bodies (EGAOB)
• Similarities and differences with the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act
• The Market Abuse Directive
• The Transparency Directive

• The Financial Conglomerates Directive
• The “supplementary” supervision of credit institutions, insurance undertakings and investment firms in a financial conglomerate
• The supervision of financial conglomerates and financial groups involved in cross-sectoral activities
• The “coordinating supervisor” or how to avoid a new BCCI
• Risk concentration
• Intra-group transactions
• Firms that are headquartered outside the EU, and are operating in EU markets
• The Joint Forum on Financial Conglomerates
• What is important for the Offshore Financial Centers
• Exchange of information with the EEA

• Tomorrow
• New directives and regulations – what is developing
• Indirect and direct regulation of Hedge Funds
• Know your customer – next step
• Solvency II is for insurance firms what the Basel ii and the Capital Requirements Directive is for banks
• Insurers holding capital according to new rules
• Replacing many existing Insurance Directives (like the Life, Non-life, Reinsurance, Insurance Groups and Winding-up Directives)
• The Internal market for financial services in the European Union: The banking, the securities and the insurance sectors in EU – what is next