EXECUTION POLICY FOR ORDERS IN RESPECT OF FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS

Transcription

1 EXECUTION POLICY FOR ORDERS IN RESPECT OF FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS The present document sets out to communicate to you, in accordance with the Directive, information on Bank Degroof's execution policy for orders in respect of financial instruments. This information will be deemed to be accepted - and the orders transmitted to us will therefore be executed in accordance with this policy - in the absence of contrary instructions at the time of transmission of the orders. Order execution policy 1. Introduction The execution policy for orders in respect of financial instruments (the execution policy ) described in the present document supplements the General Terms and Conditions of Business governing relations between our Bank and its clients. It is established in accordance with article 21 of European Directive 2004/39/EC (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive MiFID ), as transposed into Belgian law by the Royal Decrees of 27 April and 3 June The execution policy is deemed to be accepted by the client when, after receiving a copy of the present document, it gives an order to our Bank for execution. A client not wishing to accept this policy must therefore imperatively transmit in writing, at the same time as his order, a specific instruction not to apply the present policy to the item(s) he determines. In the absence of instructions to the contrary, a specific instruction given for a particular transaction applies only to such transaction, with other orders by the client deemed to have been transmitted for execution in accordance with the present document. 2. Markets and financial instruments concerned Starting from 1 November 2007, the present policy applies to the execution of orders in respect of financial instruments belonging to the following categories entrusted to our Bank by private clients and professional clients: a) securities, that is categories of stocks that are tradable on capital markets (with the exception of payment instruments), such as: shares in companies and other securities equivalent to shares in companies, partnerships or other entities, and depositary receipts in respect of shares; bonds or other forms of securitized debt, including depositary receipts in respect of such securities; any other securities giving the right to acquire or sell any such securities or giving rise to a cash settlement determined by reference to transferable securities, currencies, interest rates or yields, commodities or other indices or measures. b) those classes of instruments which are normally dealt in on the money market, such as treasury bills, certificates of deposit and commercial paper and excluding instruments of payment;

2 c) shares in undertakings for collective investment; d) financial derivatives, like options, futures, swaps, forward rate agreements and any other derivative contracts relating to marketable securities, currencies, interest rates or yields or other derivatives instruments, financial indices or financial measures which may be settled physically or in cash. e) options, futures, swaps, forward rate agreements and any other derivative contracts relating to commodities which must be settled in cash or may be settled in cash at the option of one of the parties (otherwise than by reason of a default or other termination event). f) options, futures, swaps and any other derivative contract relating to commodities that can be physically settled, provided that they are traded on a regulated market and/or a multilateral trading facility (MTF). g) options, futures, swaps, forwards and any other derivative contracts relating to commodities, that can be physically settled not otherwise mentioned in item e) and not being for commercial purposes, which have the characteristics of other derivative financial instruments, having regard to whether, inter alia, they are cleared and settled through recognized clearing houses or are subject to regular margin calls; h) derivative instruments for the transfer of credit risk; i) financial contracts for differences; j) options, futures, swaps, forward rate agreements and any other derivative contracts relating to climatic variables, freight rates, emission allowances or inflation rates or other official economic statistics that must be settled in cash or may be settled in cash at the option of one of the parties (otherwise than by reason of a default or other termination event), as well as any other derivative contracts relating to assets, rights, obligations, indices and measures not otherwise mentioned above, which have the characteristics of other derivative financial instruments, having regard to whether, inter alia, they are traded on a regulated market or an MTF, are cleared and settled through recognized clearing houses or are subject to regular margin calls; The acceptance of execution of orders relating to all financial instruments belonging to these categories or not, may be subject to all conditions imposed by our Bank. Where applicable, the execution conditions for certain special transactions may be determined in the framework of separate agreements. 3. Principles 3.1. The Bank s order execution policy is aimed at describing the way it executes orders from its private and professional customers. In practice, the Bank seeks the best possible result for the customer, within the limits of the present document, taking into account a series of parameters such as price, costs attached to the transaction, speed of execution, market liquidity, likelihood of execution and all other factors that the Bank may deem appropriate. It will take all reasonable measures to this effect, taking into account in particular the client s status, the nature of its order (for example an order to be executed on a market or an OTC order), the nature of the financial instrument concerned (for example a listed or unlisted instrument, for which quotations are available or not), the economic context (for example, an economic context of high price volatility calling for rapid execution), and the regulatory and technique context in which the instrument in question is traded. Within the limits of the present execution policy, our Bank will determine, as it considers the most appropriate in the light of the above elements, which parameters to prioritize and/or take

3 into consideration in executing the transaction. When the order is executed for a private client, priority is given to the criterion of the global order execution cost. This does not exclude other criteria being taken into account and even, in certain cases, being prioritized over that of the global cost for the client where the situation justifies this. The global execution cost corresponds to the price of the financial instruments in question at the places where they can potentially be executed by virtue of the present policy, plus all fees attached to the execution of the order (that is the fees specific to the place of execution, clearing and settlement, and any other fees) paid to third parties in relation with the execution of the order. In determining these fees, our Bank will opt, as it deems most appropriate, to execute the transaction itself or for example where it not a member of the market concerned to entrust its execution to another intermediary. Our Bank is not required to execute itself transactions entrusted to it by its clients. It may call on one or more intermediaries of its choice, whenever it deems this useful or necessary. Based on its experience, our Bank selects such intermediaries on the basis of best quality of service. A list of intermediaries to which our Bank may have recourse forms annexe 1 to the present document. This list is not exhaustive, and our Bank reserves the right to select other intermediaries when this seems appropriate to it, in accordance with the present order execution policy. 3.2 Our Bank selects the places of execution which appear to it, in the majority of cases, the most suited to ensuring the best execution of orders on behalf of clients in the light of the parameters provided for by the present policy. The list of places of execution selected by our Bank forms annexe 2 to the present agreement. In the absence of contrary instructions from the client, clients orders will be executed at these places of execution. Our Bank nonetheless reserves the right to change at any time the list supplied in annexe 2, or to select, for certain particular orders, other places of execution in accordance with the present policy. 4. Restrictions a. Whenever a customer accompanies his orders with specific instructions, our Bank may, in order to execute this instruction, depart in whole or in part from the present execution policy. In executing the transaction in accordance with the specific client instruction, our Bank is irrefutably deemed to have satisfied its best execution obligations towards the client. By specific instructions our Bank understands, in particular, an instruction relating to the place of execution, a price limit or a particular deadline within which the order must be executed. Orders transmitted on a regulated market by means of a remote terminal or screen are automatically considered as carrying the specific instruction to execute the transactions in question on the corresponding regulated market. b. A client order will never be split up for execution on more than one place of execution. c. Our Bank reserves the right to consolidate client orders with its own orders or those of other clients, whenever it reasonably believes that it could obtain a better result than when executing the orders separately. Consolidation may, however, occasionally, produce a less favourable result for a particular order. d. With the client s agreement, our Bank may execute orders in respect of financial instruments admitted for trading on regulated markets of MTFs, also outside these markets or MTFs. Where the client has not given his agreement to such execution, the order in

4 question will be executed on a regulated market or MTF, even if this form of execution does not, in our Bank's view, offer the best possible result for the client. e. Subject the client s agreement, in the case of a limit order in respect of shares admitted to trading on a regulated market which is not executed immediately at prevailing market conditions, the Bank may opt not to make the order immediately public. Where the client has not given its agreement, the Bank will immediately make public any limit order given by the client. 5. Revisions and updates Our Bank regularly reassesses its order execution policy. In particular it assesses its selection of places of execution at least once a year and every time that a significant change takes place requiring it to modify the list of places of execution. Any changes to the execution policy and its annexes will be brought to the client's notice in the manner determined by our Bank. They will be deemed to be approved when the client transmits, without reserve an order to our Bank for execution, after the changes in question have been brought to its knowledge.

5 LIST OF EXECUTION VENUES AS AT NOVEMBER 1st 2007 The list below is not exhaustive. We may use other execution venues where we deem it appropriate in accordance wih our execution policy. FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS REGION COUNTRY MARKET TRANSFERABLE EUROPE THE NETHERLANDS EURONEXT AMSTERDAM SECURITIES BELGIUM EURONEXT BRUSSELS FRANCE EURONEXT PARIS PORTUGAL EURONEXT LISBON LUXEMBURG LUXEMBOURG STOCK EXCHANGE GERMANY DEUTSCHE BÖRSE XETRA SPAIN BOLSA DE MADRID BME SWITZERLAND SWX SWISS EXCHANGE VIRT-x ITALY BORSA ITALIANA GREECE ATHENS EXCHANGE ATHEX DENMARK THE NORDIC EXCHANGE - OMX COPENHAGEN FINLAND THE NORDIC EXCHANGE - OMX HELSINKI SWEDEN THE NORDIC EXCHANGE - OMX STOCKHOLM NORWAY OSLO BØRS ASA UNITED KINGDOM LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE LES AUSTRIA WIENER BORSE ATX IRELAND IRISH STOCK EXCHANGE ISE CYPRUS CYPRUS STOCK EXCHANGE CSE ASIA & PACIFIC SINGAPORE SINGAPORE EXCHANGE SGX HONG KONG HONG KONG STOCK EXCHANGE HKEx JAPAN TOKYO STOCK EXCHANGE TSE KOREA KOREA EXCHANGE KRX AUSTRALIA AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE ASX AFRICA SOUTH AFRICA JOHANNESBURG STOCK EXCHANGE JSE NORTH AMERICA UNITED STATES NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE NYSE AMERICAN STOCK EXCHANGE AMEX NASDAQ CANADA VANCOUVER STOCK EXCHANGE BOURSE DE MONTREAL MX FINANCIAL EUROPE THE NETHERLANDS EURONEXT LIFFE AMSTERDAM DERIVATIVES BELGIUM EURONEXT LIFFE BRUSSELS FRANCE EURONEXT LIFFE PARIS PORTUGAL EURONEXT LIFFE LISBOA GERMANY EUREX SPAIN MEFF SWITZERLAND EUREX ITALY BORSA ITALIANA GREECE ATHENS DERIVATIVE EXCHANGE DENMARK COPENHAGEN EXCHANGE FINLAND EUREX SWEDEN STOCKHOLM STOCK EXCHANGE NORWAY OSLO STOCK EXCHANGE UNITED KINGDOM LIFFE AUSTRIA WIENER BORSE ASIA & PACIFIC SINGAPORE SYMEX HONG KONG JAPAN HONG KONG FUTURES EXCHANGE TOKYO STOCK EXCHANGE TSE OSAKASECURITIES EXCHANGE KOREA KOREA FUTURES EXCHANGE AUSTRALIA SYDNEY FUTURES EXCHANGE NORTH AMERICA UNITED STATES CHICAGO MERCANTILE EXCHANGE CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE CHICAGO BOARD OPTION EXCHANGE NYMEX CANADA MONTREAL EXCHANGE COMMODITY DERIVATIVES EUROPE FRANCE POWERNEXT GERMANY EUROPEAN ENERGY EXCHANGE NORWAY UNITED KINGDOM NORDPOOL ELECTRICITY LME INTERCONTINENTAL EXCHANGE ELECTRONIC DIRECT MARKET ACCESS (MEMBERSHIP) ELECTRONIC DIRECT MARKET ACCESS (LOCAL BROKER) OTHER ACCESS (LOCAL BROKER)

6 LIST OF INTERMEDIARIES AS AT NOVEMBER 1st 2007 The list below is limited to our ESN Partners and is thus not complete. ESN European Securities Network LLP Registered office c/o Withers LLP 16 Old Bailey - London EC4M 7EG - UK Italy Banca Akros Viale Eginardo, Milano Web site: Portugal Caixa Banco de Investimento Rua Barata Salgueiro, Lisboa Web site: Denmark Danske Bank Holmens Kanal 2-12 DK-1092 Copenhagen K Web site: Finland Unioninkatu 22 FI Helsinki Web site: Sweden Norrmalmstorg 1 SE Stockholm Web site: Norway Stortingsgaten 6 N-0107 Oslo Web site: Spain Caja Madrid Bolsa Serrano, Madrid Web site : France CM-CIC Securities 6, avenue de Provence Paris cedex 09 Web site: Germany equinet AG Gräfstraße 97 D Frankfurt am Main Web site: Greece Investment Bank of Greece 32, Aegialias Street Maroussi, Athens Web site: Ireland NCB Stockbrokers 3 George's Dock IFSC Dublin 1 Web site: United Kingdom NCB Stockbrokers 51 Moorgate London EC2R 6BH Web site: The Netherlands SNS Securities N.V. Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 162 P.O. Box AE Amsterdam Web site: