1.Each Member State shall make access to the business of investment firms subject to authorization for investment firms of which it is the home Member State. Such authorization shall be granted by the home Member State's competent authorities designated in accordance with Article 22. The authorization shall specify the investment services referred to in Section A of the Annex which the undertaking is authorized to provide. The authorization may also cover one or more of the non-core services referred to in Section C of the Annex. Authorization within the meaning of this Directive may in no case be granted for services covered only by Section C of the Annex.
2.Each Member State shall require that: - any investment firm which is a legal person and which, under its national law, has a registered office shall have its head office in the same Member State as its registered office, - any other investment firm shall have its head office in the Member State which issued its authorization and in which it actually carries on its business.
3.Without prejudice to other conditions of general application laid down by national law, the competent authorities shall not grant authorization unless: - an investment firm has sufficient initial capital in accordance with the rules laid down in Directive 93/6/EEC having regard to the nature of the investment service in question, - the persons who effectively direct the business of an investment firm are of sufficiently good repute and are sufficiently experienced. The direction of a firm's business must be decided by at least two persons meeting the above conditions. Where an appropriate arrangement ensures that the same result will be achieved, however, particularly in the cases provided for in the last indent of the third subparagraph of Article 1 (2), the competent authorities may grant authorization to investment firms which are natural persons or, taking account of the nature and volume of their activities, to investment firms which are legal persons where such firms are managed by single natural persons in accordance with their articles of association and national laws.
4.Member States shall also require that every application for authorization be accompanied by a programme of operations setting out inter alia the types of business envisaged and the organizational structure of the investment firm concerned.
5.An applicant shall be informed within six months of the submission of a complete application whether or not authorization has been granted. Reasons shall be given whenever an authorization is refused.
6.An investment firm may commence business as soon as authorization has been granted.
7.The competent authorities may withdraw the authorization issued to an investment firm subject to this Directive only where that investment firm: (a) does not make use of the authorization within 12 months, expressly renounces the authorization or ceased to provide investment services more than six months previously unless the Member State concerned has provided for authorization to lapse in such cases; (b) has obtained the authorization by making false statements or by any other irregular means; (c) no longer fulfils the conditions under which authorization was granted; (d) no longer complies with Directive 93/6/EEC; (e) has seriously and systematically infringed the provisions adopted pursuant to Articles 10 or 11; or (f) falls within any of the cases where national law provides for withdrawal.