1. Member States shall require the persons who effectively direct the
business of an investment firm to be of sufficiently good repute and
sufficiently experienced as to ensure the sound and prudent management
of the investment firm.
Where the market operator that seeks authorisation to operate an MTF
and the persons that effectively direct the business of the MTF are the
same as those that effectively direct the business of the regulated market,
those persons are deemed to comply with the requirements laid down in
the first subparagraph.
2. Member States shall require the investment firm to notify the
competent authority of any changes to its management, along with all
information needed to assess whether the new staff appointed to manage
the firm are of sufficiently good repute and sufficiently experienced.
3. The competent authority shall refuse authorisation if it is not satisfied
that the persons who will effectively direct the business of the
investment firm are of sufficiently good repute or sufficiently experienced,
or if there are objective and demonstrable grounds for believing
that proposed changes to the management of the firm pose a threat to its
sound and prudent management.
4. Member States shall require that the management of investment
firms is undertaken by at least two persons meeting the requirements
laid down in paragraph 1.
By way of derogation from the first subparagraph, Member States may
grant authorisation to investment firms that are natural persons or to
investment firms that are legal persons managed by a single natural
person in accordance with their constitutive rules and national laws.
Member States shall nevertheless require that alternative arrangements
be in place which ensure the sound and prudent management of such
investment firms.