There has been published the opinion of Advocate General Yves Bot in the case of Bundesanstalt fur Finanzdienstleistungsaufsichy v Ewald Baumeister. The case considers the interpretation of Article 54(1) of MiFID as regards the scope of the professional secrecy obligation imposed on Member State national competent authorities and the concept of ‘confidential information’ in this context.

The Advocate General states, “At the end of my analysis, I shall propose that the Court, in view of the specific nature of the supervision of the financial markets, should give as broad a scope as possible to the concepts of ‘confidential information’ and ‘professional secrecy’, by ruling that all information, including correspondence and statements, relating to a supervised undertaking and received or drawn up by a national financial markets supervisory authority is included, without any other requirement, in the concept of ‘confidential information’ within the meaning of the second sentence of Article 54(1) of MiFID and is, therefore, protected by the obligation of professional secrecy pursuant to the first sentence of Article 54(1) of that Directive.”

View Opinion of Advocate General – Bundesanstalt fur Finanzdienstleistungsaufsichy v Ewald Baumeister, 12 December 2017