The legal situation of financial market participants in the context of the amendment of the Act on Trading in Financial Instruments

Abstract

The main subject of this article is an attempt to resolve whether and on what principles active financial market participants were entitled to continue their activities related to trading in financial instruments during the so-called transition period determined by the provision of Article 29 of the Act of 1 March 2018 amending the Act on Trading in Financial Instruments and certain other acts (Dz.U. [Journal of Laws] of 2018, item 685). To this end, the authors have interpreted this provision in the context of the overall regulation of the amending act, with particular attention paid to the new wording of the definition of trading in financial instruments. The analysis of the indicated issues is carried out primarily from the point of view of active participants of the financial market, which constitutes a significant enrichment of the studies that have so far dealt with the discussed problem. Against the background of the above considerations, the authors draw attention to the influence of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (Financial Supervision Commission) on other financial market participants, especially in relation to the supervisory proceedings conducted by the Authority and the supervisory measures applied. As a result of the conducted deliberations, the authors notice that the imprecision and incompleteness of the content of the analysed legal acts may be connected with significant negative consequences for the financial market participants, primarily in the form of financial sanctions.