S.L. 330.10 Art. 2Interpretation. 

(1) In these regulations, unless the context otherwise requires:

"the Act" means the Malta Financial Services Authority Act;

"administrator" means a natural or legal person that has control over the provision of a benchmark;

"Authority" means the Malta Financial Services Authority established by article 3 of the Act;

"benchmark" means any index by reference to which the amount payable under a financial instrument or a financial contract, or the value of a financial instrument, is determined, or an index that is used to measure the performance of an investment fund with the purpose of tracking the return of such index or of defining the asset allocation of a portfolio or of computing the performance fees;

"Benchmarks Regulation" means Regulation (EU) 2016/1011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2016 on indices used as benchmarks in financial instruments and financial contracts or to measure the performance of investment funds and amending Directives 2008/48/EC and 2014/17/EU and Regulation

(EU) No 596/2014 as may be amended from time to time and includes any implementing measures, implementing technical standards, regulatory technical standards, guidelines and similar measures that have been or may be issued thereunder; "Council Directive 86/635/EEC" means Council Directive of 8 December 1986 on the annual accounts and consolidated accounts of banks and other financial institutions as may be amended from time to time and includes any implementing measures, implementing technical standards, regulatory technical standards, guidelines and similar measures that have been or may be issued thereunder;

"Council Directive 91/674/EEC" means Council Directive of 19 December 1991 on the annual accounts and consolidated accounts of insurance undertakings as may be amended from time to time and includes any implementing measures, implementing technical standards, regulatory technical standards, guidelines and similar measures that have been or may be issued thereunder;

"Directive 2013/34/EU" means Directive 2013/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 on the annual financial statements, consolidated financial statements and related reports of certain types of undertakings, amending Directive 2006/43/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Council Directives 78/660/EEC and 83/349/EEC as may be amended from time to time and includes any implementing measures, implementing technical standards, regulatory technical standards, guidelines and similar measures that have been or may be issued thereunder;

"financial contract" means:

(a) any credit agreement as defined in point (c) of Article 3 of Directive 2008/48/EC;

(b) any credit agreement as defined in point (3) of Article 4 of Directive 2014/17/EU;

"financial instrument" means any of the instruments listed in Section C of Annex I to Directive 2014/65/EU for which a request for admission to trading on a trading venue, as defined in point (24) of Article 4(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU, has been made or which is traded on a trading venue as defined in point (24) of Article 4(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU or via a systematic internaliser as defined in point (20) of Article 4(1) of that Directive;

"index" means any figure:

(a) that is published or made available to the public;

(b) that is regularly determined:

(i) entirely or partially by the application of a formula or any other method of calculation, or by an assessment; and

(ii) on the basis of the value of one or more underlying assets or prices, including estimated prices, actual or estimated interest rates, quotes and committed quotes, or other values or surveys;

"provision of a benchmark" means:

(a) administering the arrangements for determining a benchmark;

(b) collecting, analysing or processing input data for the purpose of determining a benchmark; and

(c) determining a benchmark through the application of a formula or other method of calculation or by an assessment of input data provided for that purpose;

"Regulation (EU) No 596/2014" means Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on market abuse (market abuse regulation) and repealing Directive 2003/6/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Commission Directives 2003/124/EC, 2003/125/EC and 2004/ 72/EC as may be amended from time to time and includes any implementing measures, implementing technical standards, regulatory technical standards, guidelines and similar measures that have been or may be issued thereunder;

"supervised entity" means any of the following:

(a) a credit institution as defined in point (1) of Article 4(1) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council;

(b) an investment firm as defined in point (1) of Article 4(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU;

(c) an insurance undertaking as defined in point (1) of Article 13 of Directive 2009/138/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council;

(d) a reinsurance undertaking as defined in point (4) of Article 13 of Directive 2009/138/EC;

(e) a UCITS as defined in Article 1(2) of Directive 2009/65/EC or, where applicable, a UCITS management company as defined in point (b) of Article 2(1) of that Directive;

(f) an alternative investment fund manager (AIFM) as defined in point (b) of Article 4(1) of Directive 2011/61/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council;

(g) an institution for occupational retirement provision as defined in point (a) of Article 6 of Directive 2003/ 41/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council;

(h) a creditor as defined in point (b) of Article 3 of Directive 2008/48/EC for the purposes of credit agreements as defined in point (c) of Article 3 of that Directive;

(i) a non-credit institution as defined in point (10) of Article 4 of Directive 2014/17/EU for the purposes of credit agreements as defined in point (3) of Article 4 of that Directive;

(j) a market operator as defined in point (18) of Article 4(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU;

(k) a central counterparty as defined in point (1) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) No 648/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council;

(l) a trade repository as defined in point (2) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) No 648/2012;

(m) an administrator authorised or registered in accordance with Article 34 of the Benchmarks Regulation.

(2) Words and expressions used in the Act shall, in these regulations, have the same meaning as is assigned to them in the Act.

(3) In the event that there is any conflict between any of these regulations and the provisions of the Benchmarks Regulation, the provisions of the Benchmarks Regulation shall prevail.