10 Conflict of interest policy at firm level

The management body should be responsible for establishing, approving and overseeing the implementation and maintenance of effective policies to identify, assess, manage and mitigate or prevent actual and potential conflicts of interest at firm level, e.g. as a result of the various activities and roles of the investment firm, of different investment firms within the scope of prudential consolidation or of different business lines or units within an investment firm, or with regard to external stakeholders. When setting these policies, investment firms should be aware that these policies need also to be compliant with Article 16(3) and 23 of Directive 2014/65/EU and Articles 33 to 35 of the Commission delegated regulation 2017/565.

Investment firms ’ measures to manage or where appropriate mitigate conflicts of interest should be documented and include, inter alia:

• a. an appropriate segregation of duties, e.g. entrusting conflicting activities within the processing of transactions or when providing services to different persons, or entrusting supervisory and reporting responsibilities for conflicting activities to different persons;
• b. establishing information barriers, e.g. through the physical separation of certain business lines or units.