Intermediaries/Tied Agents

Information to customers on intermediaries and tied agents associated with credit institutions and credit companies.

Detailed information on the operations of such persons (only in greek)

The Bank of Greece, in the context of disclosures to customers of credit institutions and credit companies and being required to keep a register of intermediaries engaged either in the promotion of banking products and services or in the collection of debts (pursuant to Annex 1 to Bank of Greece Governor's Act 2577/2006) and tied agents engaged in the provision of specific investment product-related services (pursuant to Article 29 of Law 3606/2007 and Bank of Greece Governor's Act 2600/2007), posts on its website a uniform register (only in greek), (instructions to use the file)(only in greek), and a register of debt collection companies (only in greek), (instructions to use the file)(only in greek) comprising the names of such persons.

Customers may be informed of the credit institution or credit company with which the intermediary or tied agent has signed a cooperation agreement, his contact details (telephone number and postal address) and the services provided thereby. Then, through a link they are directed to the files "List of Credit Institutions in operation" and "List of Credit Companies" on the website of the Bank of Greece, where they can find contact details of each credit institution or credit company (address, telephone numbers, email, fax).

Investors' attention is drawn to the fact that, where the name of intermediaries or tied agents is not shown in the said lists and, therefore, they are not associated with a credit institution or credit company, as well as where only a cellular phone number is shown in advertisements for communication with investors, they should not carry out transactions with such persons, but inform the Bank of Greece's Department for the Supervision of Credit and Financial Institutions (tel. 210 3205068 and 210 3205152). These details are only posted to inform and must not be construed as advice or any other form of recommendation to investors.

Bank of Greece Governor's Act 2597/31 October 2007: amending Bank of Greece Governor's Act 2577/2006 "Framework of operational principles and criteria for the evaluation of the organisation and Internal Control Systems of credit and financial institutions, and relevant powers of their management bodies".

Bank of Greece Governor's Act 2597/31 October 2007 was issued by authority of Law 3606/2007, which transposed into Greek law Directive 2004/39/EC (MiFID) on markets for financial instruments. Pursuant to this law, the Bank of Greece is responsible for, inter alia, specifying credit institutions' organisational obligations and conflicts of interests, on the basis of the harmonised provisions enacted by the European Commission (Directive 2006/73/EC). Specifically, the new Act:

a) adapts the provisions of the Governor' Act on Internal Control Systems (Bank of Greece Governor's Act 2577/2006) as regards credit institutions' outsourcing of any activity (banking, investment or ancillary), for which they remain fully responsible; and

b) specifies credit institutions' obligations regarding:

conflicts of interest that might arise and prove prejudicial to the customer, especially in the production of investment research, the provision of advice, the conduct of corporate finance activities, insider trading by officers etc.; banks should adopt a comprehensive policy at group level in order to identify and manage such conflicts and disclose them to customers;
rules requiring credit institutions to keep customers' assets separately from their own assets; and
record keeping rules.

The issuance of Bank of Greece Governor's Act 2597/31 October 2007 was preceded by consultation with banks and collaboration with the Hellenic Capital Market Commission; the relevant guidelines of the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) were also taken into consideration.

In this context, the competent departments of the Bank of Greece are authorised to provide any instructions required to ensure the consistent implementation of the new provisions by credit institutions and credit companies.