The Directive 204/39/CE of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21^st April 2004, relating to financial instruments markets and known by its English acronym MiFID (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive), establishes a series of measures which are causing substantial changes in the regulation of financial markets across the European Union. 

The main objectives of this Regulation can be summarized in a few lines:

• Improvement of protection measures for investors.
• Modernization of financial markets.
• Adaptation of  investment services companies to new solvency and working requirements.
• Increase of power held by the Spanish Stock Market Commission.

This Directive has been included in the Spanish legislation through Law 47/2007 of 19^th December, amending Law 24/1988 of 28^th of July, on the Securities Market.

The adaptation of Banca March to this Directive has implied a gret deal of effort from all employees so as to provide customers with those tools enabling them to have the appropriate security level for their investments.

In order to comply with this requirement, Banca March has chosen to grant customers the highest protection level, thus by classifying them as retail banking customers. 

For further details on the advantages resulting from the MIFID implementation, you can read our Guide with General Information as well as the following Informative Guide published by the CNMV/Spanish Stock Exchange and Securities Commission (opening in a new window). Otherwise you can click here for other explanations in English from the EU official web site.