The Albanian parliament approved today, on May 14th, 2020 in the plenary session the draft law “On Capital Markets”. The draft law improves the current legal framework and addresses to the dynamic of the of domestic capital market development. The draft law promotes the development and the integrity of capital markets, increases the transparency and investor protection by setting the highest standards. The drafting process of the new law was carried out by the support of World Bank experts, as part of the Project “Strengthening the supervisory capacities of the Albanian Financial Supervisory Authorities: Focused on the development of capital markets”.
The draft law is in accordance with:
- Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MIFID II) and other rules in the European Union in the field of capital markets;
- International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) principles and guidance’s from European Securities and Markets Authorities.
The main objectives of this draft law are:
- Protection of investors interests, through adaptation of the highest standards or classification in professional investors, qualified investors, acceptable party or non – professional investors;
- Adaption of strict requirements regarding the licensing, regulating or supervising the brokerage firms and other capital markets operators;
- Promotion of foreign investments by attracting foreign brokerage firms to act on the domestic capital markets;
- The adaption of rules for well-functioning of the market, including the stock exchange;
- Acknowledging and regulating the activity of other trading platforms, by promoting at the same time the competitiveness between them;
- Creating and regulating the activity of institutions with importance in the market infrastructure, such as Central Securities Depository or Clearing House;
- Promotion of market integrity by increasing the transparency requirements for issuers and listed companies, as well as for market operations and institutions.
The new law also foresees the increase of the Albanian Financial Authority competencies to investigate in function of strengthening its supervisory and regulatory framework.
Source: Albanian Financial Authority