Implementation of obligations resulting from the transposition of the European Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID)

The Group’s different financial intermediation entities affected by MiFID continued to implement the obligations resulting from the transposition of the directive over the course of 2008.

MiFID has led to changes in the structure of the financial markets, the organisational rules applying to Investment Service Providers (hereafter ISPs) and the rules of good conduct that ISPs must follow in their client relations:

• ISPs are required to assess their existing and potential clients to determine the appropriateness and adequacy of the financial products and services offered (higher protection for non-professional clients and less protection for professional clients). They are also required to inform clients of their designated category and their right to change said category;
• new assessment procedures mean ISPs are obliged to collect a certain amount of data prior to the provision of investment services;
• an order execution policy was designed for the relevant Société Générale Group entities and they are required to bring this policy to the attention of their clients and keep it up-to-date;
• policies to identify, prevent and manage conflicts of interest have also been defined.
• specific training continued in 2008.