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FinTechs belonging to this category offer advisory and broking services for investments usually via an internet platform.
Robo advisory services usually offer an investment proposition following a series of questions concerning the personal financial background and the risk-bearing capacity of the user. Sometimes the respective platform also enables the user to directly execute the proposed investment.
Auto-trading concerns all services which automatically trade on behalf of the customer according to his or her specifications.
Apart from that some FinTechs collect and offer merely or as an ancillary service market information or operate comparison portals to increase the transparency of the capital markets and to help the investor with his decision-making.
There are also FinTech-advertising-services which advertise various financial services or products.
Introduction
Attitude of the country towards modern financial advisory and broking services
Following the dynamics of doing business, Albanian Parliament considered as fundamental the revision of the legislation on capital markets. Pursuant to recent trade approach, and among others, aiming to regulate the political climate towards modern financial advisory services, Albanian Parliament adopted a new Law on Capital Markets in 2020. Despite legal incentives, modern financial advisory services remain a challenging and developing sector, and not (yet) much familiar to businesses.
Legal affairs
Obligations and requirements to provide financial advisory and broking services, or ancillary services described above
Albanian Law on Capital Markets defines ‘financial advisory service’ as the provision of personal recommendations to a client or prospective client, either upon its request or at the initiative of the investment company, in respect of one (1) or more transactions relating to financial instruments.
Any company intending to conduct financial advisory services in Albania must be registered with, and licensed from, the Albanian Financial Supervisory Authority. To obtain the license, the applicant must submit information on the company such as structural organisation, stockholders, business plan etc., and filing fee at the amount of 5,000 ALL – approx. EUR 45. Upon receiving the Authority’s decision on granting the license, the company is required to pay registration fee at the amount of 60,000 ALL – approx. EUR 500.
In case the company will not engage in safekeeping and administration of financial instrument for the account of clients and is not permitted to hold clients’ accounts of securities, its minimum share capital shall be at the value of 6,500,000 ALL – approx. EUR 53,600.
In addition, the company is required to have a professional liability insurance policy or other similar guarantee against liability for claims occurred as a result of its actions or omissions, not less than 65,000,000 ALL – approx. EUR 535,900 for each claim and not less than 97,500,000 ALL – approx. EUR 803,800 for all claims in a calendar year.
Additional comments regarding the legal situation for financial advisory and broking services, or adjacent services or what FinTech’s must be aware of in this business area
The FinTech is required to provide financial advisory services in accordance with clients’ most fit and proper interests, the latter identified through the information attained from the clients regarding their experience in capital market, financial status, knowledge etc. The parties are required to sign a standard questionnaire adopted by the Authority, which shall be administered by the company. Clients’ adequacy to a specific financial advisory service is subject to revisions on a yearly basis. The FinTech is res