The bases for the classification of clients conducted upon the provision of investment services are based directly on the Securities Market Act applicable in Estonia. Generally, all clients who are natural persons are regarded as retail clients. The status of a retail client means higher investor protection. If you have been classified as a retail client, but you still want to be assigned the status of a professional client, you may still do so by submitting a respective application in our offices. All this and additional information related to the classification of clients is also available for you on our website at www.seb.ee/investorkaitse. There is a separate chapter about the classification of clients there.
A risk profile is assigned to you according to the questionnaire that you have filled in and which comprises questions about your knowledge and experience related to investment, your financial capability and investment objectives. This will hopefully help prevent situations where clients initiate transactions which are not suitable to them and which entail too large risks. This also helps us make offers for investment products that are suitable for the clients. And even if the client wishes to make a transaction that is not suitable for its profile, the Bank is obliged to warn the client of a higher risk of the planned transaction.
The basis for the assignment of your risk profile is the questionnaire that you have filled in. In the case of any significant changes in the data presented upon filling in the questionnaire, your risk profile may also change. In order for the Bank to offer you suitable investment products, the submission of the changed data to the Bank and the respective review of the risk profile shall be required.
In such case the Bank cannot recommend you suitable investment products. In such case you make the planned transaction on your own initiative and at your own risk, declaring to the Bank that you are aware of and accept the risks pertaining to the transaction.
The Best Execution Policy of SEB reflects our current assessment of how to cater to our clients' best interests in the execution of the clients' orders for securities transactions. We do however hope that the Best Execution Policy will make our order handling procedures more transparent. Should we find it necessary to supplement any part of our order handling procedures, such changes will be introduced to our Best Execution Policy.
The primary difference between a regulated market and an MTF is that while only a market operator holding a respective activity licence may operate a regulated market, an MTF may be operated by either a market operator or an investment firm providing investment service. Both however are multilateral trading systems facilitating the purchase and sale of financial instruments between third parties. Systematic internalisers are usually banks and investment firms that do not operate multilaterally and perform the so-called internal execution of the clients' transaction orders - they offer financial instruments at the quoted prices for sale or purchase on their own account.
Pursuant to applicable law an investment service provider must check the clients' knowledge and experience in order to give its best assessment of whether the given service or product is relevant for the client. This means particularly additional questions about whether the client understands the properties and risks of the given product or service. If the planned transaction is beyond your risk profile, the Bank shall warn you respectively. The assessment and warning the client shall take place particularly in the client's own interests in order to prevent unwanted risks from being taken. This is no subjective assessment given by a bank employee. Giving a respective assessment is regulated and this is done by a representative of the Bank, using rules and systems established for such purpose.
After you have given a transaction order to a bank employee and the latter has entered this in the banking system the system checks whether the respective transaction is in agreement with the transactions made by you earlier or with the information given to the Bank by you.
If the new instrument means in our product classification a product of a higher risk than your current transactions, the service assistant will ask you some questions, the answers given to which provide the Bank with confidence that you understand all the risks related to the instrument. If you know all the risks related to the product, you can also perform the relevant transaction and in the future no questions will be asked in the case of transactions performed with the product.
More information is available at www.seb.ee/investorkaitse.
