Assessment of declarations

Competent authorities should assess declarations by considering whether the specific interests declared by their members of staff or members of their governance body are compatible with their tasks.

Where the staff member or member of the governance body performs tasks for another public organisation or entity as part of that person’s role, the competent authority should where appropriate take into account such tasks in the assessment.

Powers of the competent authorities regarding financial instruments owned at the time of being hired or afterwards

For the purposes of the application of Article 4a(8) of Directive 2013/36/EU, financial instruments which may give rise to conflicts of interest should include at least the holdings subject to the declaration of interest referred to in Article 4a(7) of Directive 2013/36/EU.

Holding financial instruments can be considered as not giving rise to conflicts of interest or as amounting to trading where all the following conditions are met:

• a) the financial instruments are issued by an institution which is a mutual, cooperative society, savings bank, credit institution established to provide services to a competent authority’s staff and former staff, or a similar institution;
• b) holding the financial instruments is necessary in order to access the normal banking and other services of the institution;
• c) the level of financial interest in the institution arising from the holding can be considered negligible;
• d) investment or divestment operations of the financial instruments may only take place between the members of the institution or through the institution itself.

Competent authorities should ensure that the sale or disposal of financial instruments referred to in Article 4a(8) of Directive 2013/36/EU is subject to prior approval by the competent authority’s ethics, compliance or equivalent function in charge of monitoring compliance with the conflicts of interest policy.

Where a competent authority requires a member of staff or a member of its governance body who owns financial instruments referred to in Article 4a(8) of Directive 2013/36/EU, to sell or dispose of those instruments, that member should execute the sale or transfer the financial instruments within a reasonable timeframe established by the competent authority. The competent authority should take into account any obligations to hold instruments arising out of the remuneration requirements set out under Article 94 of Directive 2013/36/EU. Where the prospective member owns the financial instruments at the time of being hired or appointed, to the extent possible, such sale or disposal should be executed by the prospective member prior to taking office.