Eligible counterparty - FCA Rulebook Term
Either a per se eligible counterparty, or an elective eligible counterparty.
=Elective ECP
The famous “elective ECP” categorisation:
- Many per se professional clients are also per se eligible counterparties — but not all.
- Those per se professional clients that are not per se eligible counterparties — i.e., that are elective ECPs — can only be treated as ECPs if they have requested this categorisation. Now one might, of course, gently put that idea in such a client’s head: nothing wrong with that. Politely suggesting an elective ECP might wish to think about requesting an upgrade is one thing — but one cannot unilaterally categorise an elective ECP as an ECP without them first requesting it.
- an “elective professional client” (ie one is able to be upgraded from retail to professional) cannot further request to be treated as an ECP.
Conduct of Business
This is an article about the FCA’s conduct of business rules, known by its chapter in the FCA Sourcebook, COBS, which implement, among other things, MiFID (directive 2004/39/EC (EUR Lex) and implementing directive 2006/73/EC (EUR Lex)).