Tied Agents within the ECSPR Regime

Abstract

The European Crowdfunding Service Provider Regime allows the intermediation of securities, loans and other admitted instruments for crowdfunding purposes up to five million Euro. Crowdfunding offers above five million Euro continue to be subject to national crowdfunding regimes, which may be regulated under MiFID. The authors discuss how existing MiFID licenses can be used in parallel to a license under ECSPR, with a focus on tied agents who operate under a so-called liability umbrella (investment firm or credit institution) holding a MiFID license. In Germany, the law implementing MiFID states that tied agents can operate “solely [in the name,] for the account and under the liability of” an investment firm or credit institution acting as liability umbrella. This raises the question, whether a tied agent can hold a license under ECSPR itself at the same time. However, the authors argue that both MiFID and ECSPR as well as the intent of the German legislator provide for the fact that one can hold an ECSPR authorization and at the same time be appointed as tied agent of a MiFID investment firm or credit institution.