EEA access tracker for non-EEA financial services firms

With a total population of 446 million inhabitants and a nominal collective GDP of around USD 14 trillion, the European Union (“EU”) represents the world’s second largest market and a key target for the global asset management industry. However, with 27 separate member states separately implementing (and interpreting in slightly but sometimes significantly different ways) a number of overlapping Union-wide Directives, the barriers to entry for non-EU financial services firms can be daunting.

Our firm is the Cyprus contributor in the high level survey, created by Eversheds Sutherland, that addresses some of the key issues for access to the EU financial markets and EEA member states by non-EEA firms.

It deals mainly with key issues/questions that non-EEA firms may find in their path on accessing each EU member state in relation to the marketing or provision of financial products and/or services under the AIFMD and MiFID II regimes. Eleni Shiarly and Angelos Exadactylos outline in the survey the Cypriot regulatory framework that applies to the provision of investment services/products by non-EEA firms,  including also the regulatory options that a non-EEA financial services firm has that could enable them to satisfy the EU investors’ business requests.