Law No XI-199 of 19 March 2009 Amending and Supplementing Articles 3, 7, 10, 14, 20, 41, 42, 43, 47, 51, 62, 64, 80, 82, 83, 85, 86, 95, 97 and Annex of the Law on Markets in Financial Instruments and Supplementing the Law with Article 85-1 (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 38–1438).

      

      The Amendment to the Law imposed some provisions of the Directive 2007/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 September 2007 as regards procedural rules and evaluation criteria for the prudential assessment of acquisitions and increase of holdings in the financial sector. Pursuant to the previously mentioned the Law adopts a finalized list of criteria based on which a holding acquirer will be assessed, i.e.: on the grounds of his personal reputation, experience, financial soundness, whether the acquirer will continue to comply with the prudential requirements, also whether there are reasonable grounds to suspect that, in connection with the proposed acquisition, money laundering or terrorist financing is being committed or attempted. Solving the TAX & LAW NEWSLETTER / May 2009 No 5 3 question on the acquirer’s impeccable reputation, the Law establishes a possibility to assess not only the presence or absence of the capacity to have rights and obligations, abuse of alcohol, drugs, toxic or psychotropic substances, but also other significant factors.

      

      The Law amended the procedure and terms of examination of a notification submitted by a person willing to acquire or increase his holdings of financial broker firms or regulated market operator in a supervisory institution. Three-month period defined in the previous version of the Law was now amended to 60 business days period, starting from the day of notification and all necessary documents’ acceptance confirmation, during this period the Securities Commission will perform the assessment of the applier’s suitability and financial soundness and will make a decision. In case such assessment requires additional information this period may be extended by no longer than 50 business days (if the acquirer is established or its activity is regulated by the law of third countries (non EU), or in case such person operates in EU but acts under no supervision – by 30 business days). In such situation the term of assessment calculation is suspended, however, for no longer than for 20 business days.

      

      The Law also adopted amendments and supplements, related to impact measures applied by the Securities Commission: (1) additional list of impact measures applied to controlled entities, by granting a right to the Securities Commission to terminate the licence of a financial broker under which it rendered one, some or all investment services; (2) formulations of pecuniary fines imposed by the Securities Commission, the amount of penalties for violations of certain requirements, which relate to illegal income and other material gains, was specified; (3) it was settled that after appealing against the decision of the Securities Commission to impose a fine, it must be paid not in one month time (as it was settled in the previous version) but no later than in 40 days after the decision of the court by which the complaint was overruled becomes effective.

      

      Law No XI-201 of 19 March 2009 Amending and Supplementing Articles 2, 5, 8, 17, 23, 24, 25, 26, 34, 66 and the Appendix to the Law on Banks of the Republic of Lithuania (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 38–1440).

      

      The Law establishes amendments the majority of which are analogous to those established by the Law No XI-199 of 19 March 2009 Amending Articles 3, 7, 10, 14, 20, 41, 42, 43, 47, 51, 62, 64, 80, 82, 83, 85, 86, 95, 97 and the Annex to the Law on Markets in Financial Instruments of the Republic of Lithuania and Supplementing It with Article 85-1 (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 38–1438).

      

       In addition, the Law establishes that a prior consent of the Bank of Lithuania will not be required in order to acquire a shareholding; however, a person can acquire a shareholding only provided that the regulatory institution (the Bank of Lithuania) does not object to such acquisition.