Financial Services Legislation: Informal Consolidation

Warning: This consolidation is strictly informal and has no legal standing. Users are strongly advised not to rely on these texts but to refer to the original legislation.

Introduction
This section of the Department of Finance web-site contains an informal consolidation of the financial services legislation under which the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority (‘Financial Regulator’) operates . It is the first phase of a process which is expected to lead to the publication of a Bill which will formally consolidate and simplify this legislation.

The legislation consists mainly of: (i) Acts of the Oireachtas (ii) Regulations made under the European Communities Acts, transposing EU Directives into law.

In order to assess the regulatory burden on individual sectors, it is also necessary to take account of codes and guidelines prescribed by the Financial Regulator. These are available on its website (http://www.ifsra.ie).

Methodology
The individual pieces of legislation were updated using the Irish Statute Book on the Attorney General’s website (www.irishstatutebook.ie). They were further updated to take account of amendments made by the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Acts 2003 and 2004. The amendments/updates are noted in footnotes to the texts.

The resulting texts were then edited to remove unnecessary references (e.g. amendments to other legislation). Finally, a Table of Contents was added.

Presentation
The consolidation is presented under the following headings:
Financial Regulator
Compliance Obligations
Consumer Protection
REGULATION OF:
Credit Institutions
Credit Unions
Insurance Undertakings
Investment & Insurance Intermediaries
Mortgage Intermediaries
Bureau de Change,Money Transmission and Non Deposit Taking Lenders
Stock Exchanges
Financial Futures & Options Exchanges
Moneybrokers
Moneylenders
Funds
Other IFSC entities

Miscellaneous

Department of Finance
September 2004