Update Belgium – CM PB

Country Manual Private Banking – Belgium – BRP Update 2024

BRP has updated its Country Manual Private Banking for Belgium out of bank’s country of establishment (DEF, RS, BT and RT)

Regulatory Template, Regulatory Summary and Behaviour Template

Material changes

• We have reviewed the documents following consultations with our local counsel and can confirm that there have been no major relevant changes to the cross-border regulatory framework in Belgium since the last publication of this Country Manual.
• Please note the following changes with regard to answers provided to some activities:
• Some nuances and conditions have been added to the answers concerning the general prospection activities of the Bank (i.e. presenting the Bank in general terms, providing the Bank’s annual report and press reviews, and providing marketing brochures on the Bank) to remind that there are no formal rules for reverse solicitation with regard to banking services.

Actively providing generic and personalised recommendation lists via remote means of communications is now a “Grey zone” to better reflect the fact that the FSMA has not to date defined any formal position with regard to these activities undertaken actively into Belgium, also within the context of an existing advisory agreement, and that a cautious approach should be maintained.

Non-material changes

Furthermore, some amendments in the BT have also been made, without there having been any material changes:

• For clarity purposes, the condition “reverse solicitation must be duly documented” has been removed from the whole BT. This condition remains, however, key to be complied with for all activities undertaken based on a prospect’s/client’s initiative.
• The condition “on an occasional basis” has been added to some activities when undertaken onsite where it did not appear. This adjustment does not imply any material changes, as it was already necessary to only act on an occasional basis when undertaking permitted activities in Belgium, to avoid the Bank being considered as having a de facto branch in the country.

Regulatory Summary

This document has now a more user-friendly layout and reflects the changes contained in the RT.

Implications for business relations with third parties

The documents have been reformatted onto the latest template, providing for more answers to all sections.

Some sections have been further developed, following consultation with our local counsel, e.g.

• The remuneration sections now provide more details, specifying notably that the payments should be limited in time, they should be independent from the number of services provided to the client and from the duration of the relationship between the Bank and the client.
• This is applicable to both remuneration based on the volume of clients’ assets, and based on the Bank’s revenues generated by clients’ assets, for all types of third parties.
• It is now considered permitted for a local business introducer to introduce prospects to the Bank, actively or passively. The activity should, however, be strictly limited to mere occasional referrals to avoid triggering licensing requirements for the Bank but also for the BI who would qualify as an intermediary in banking and investment services.

It is reminded that EAMs should limit their activities to the provision of the Bank’s contact details since performing other activities on behalf of the Bank would trigger the need for the EAM to get a license for intermediation in banking and investment services, which is not compatible with its license for investment activities. There is also an underlying risk for the Bank to be seen as performing regulated activities without a license.

BT Short Comparison

BRP has created a comparison document allowing users to quickly identify the modifications made compared to the previous version of the PB Manual (BT Short Comparison). The BT Short Comparison can be found on BRP’s platform (mybrponline) in the Search tab by entering in the Document Field “CM PB BT SHORT COMP” and “BELGIUM” in the Target Country Field.

The BT Short Comparison should be read as follows:

The first column contains a short description of the activity in question. The second column contains the answers of the previous version of the Country Manual (online until the day of the alert). The third column contains the new answers of the most recent version of the Country Manual. Only the modified answers are displayed (in color). If the answers in the new version are unchanged compared to the previous version, they are shaded in grey.

For more information, please contact us: info@brpsa.com

Geneva, February 23nd, 2024