Investment Intermediaries Act, 1995
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PART III Regulation and Supervision of Investment Business Firms | ||
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General functions of supervisory authorities. |
20.—(1) Subject to such guidelines in this regard as may be issued by the Minister in the interests of the proper and orderly regulation and supervision of investment business firms and the protection of investors and notified to a supervisory authority in writing and published, from time to time, in the Iris Oifigiúil, supervisory authorities shall administer the system of regulation and supervision of investment business firms in accordance with the provisions of this Act in order to promote— | |
(a) the maintenance of the proper and orderly regulation and supervision of investment business firms or of financial markets, or both, and | ||
(b) the protection of investors. | ||
(2) Where a supervisory authority is of the opinion that it is necessary in the interests of assessing the capacity of an investment business firm to engage in an activity for which it has sought authorisation or for which it stands authorised under section 13 of this Act, it may commission an independent assessment of the capacity of the proposed investment business firm or of the authorised investment business firm. | ||
(3) Subject to subsection (4) of this section, the Minister may, after consulting with the supervisory authorities, prescribe the fee to be paid to a supervisory authority by a proposed investment business firm or by an investment business firm supervised by it and the Minister may prescribe different fees for different classes of investment business firms. | ||
(4) Regulations under this section may provide for such incidental or related matters as are, in the opinion of the Minister, necessary to give effect to such fees and where the Minister proposes to prescribe a fee under subsection (3) of this section he shall— | ||
(a) publish details of the proposed fee where the fee is in respect of an application for authorisation, and | ||
(b) consider any representations made to him within a reasonable period, being not less than two months after the date of such publication, as he shall specify at the time of publication. | ||
(5) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this Act a supervisory authority shall co-operate with the other supervisory authority in the State and when acting as a competent authority shall co-operate with the competent authorities in other Member States so that the responsibilities of each supervisory and competent authority may be more effectively discharged. | ||
(6) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1) of this section or to the powers of a supervisory authority under sections 19 and 65 of this Act, a supervisory authority acting as a competent authority may verify, at the request of a competent authority in another Member State, that any investment business firm authorised by that competent authority is complying with the relevant regulatory requirements imposed by that competent authority or by the home Member State of such an investment business firm. | ||
(7) A competent authority in another Member State authorised in that Member State to supervise investment business firms may, having notified the supervisory authorities, inspect or investigate the business of an investment business firm supervised by that authority which has a place of business in the State at that place of business or otherwise for the purpose of verifying any information of the type referred to in Article 23(3) of Council Directive 93/22/EEC of 10 May, 1993(1) in any one of the following manners— | ||
(a) by inspection of the investment business firm, at that place of business or otherwise, by the authority concerned, | ||
(b) by inspection of the investment business firm, at that place of business or otherwise, by a person authorised in that behalf by the authority concerned, or | ||
(c) by a request from the authority concerned to a supervisory authority to carry out the inspection on its behalf of the place of business or otherwise. | ||