1. Member States may choose not to apply this Directive to any
persons for which they are the home Member State that:
— are not allowed to hold clients' funds or securities and which for that
reason are not allowed at any time to place themselves in debit with
their clients, and
— are not allowed to provide any investment service except the reception
and transmission of orders in transferable securities and units in
collective investment undertakings and the provision of investment
advice in relation to such financial instruments, and
— in the course of providing that service, are allowed to transmit orders
only to:
(i) investment firms authorised in accordance with this Directive;
(ii) credit institutions authorised in accordance with Directive 2000/
12/EC;
(iii) branches of investment firms or of credit institutions which are
authorised in a third country and which are subject to and
comply with prudential rules considered by the competent
authorities to be at least as stringent as those laid down in this
Directive, in Directive 2000/12/EC or in Directive 93/6/EEC;
(iv) collective investment undertakings authorised under the law of a
Member State to market units to the public and to the managers
of such undertakings;
(v) investment companies with fixed capital, as defined in Article 15
(4) of Second Council Directive 77/91/EEC of
13 December 1976 on coordination of safeguards which, for the
protection of the interests of members and others, are required
by Member States of companies within the meaning of the
second paragraph of Article 58 of the Treaty, in respect of the
formation of public limited liability companies and the maintenance
and alteration of their capital, with a view to making such
safeguards equivalent (1), the securities of which are listed or
dealt in on a regulated market in a Member State;
provided that the activities of those persons are regulated at national
level.
2. Persons excluded from the scope of this Directive according to
paragraph 1 cannot benefit from the freedom to provide services and/or
activities or to establish branches as provided for in Articles 31 and 32
respectively.