ABSTRACT
The relevant ‘investment activities’ are listed in Part II of Schedule 1 to the Financial Services Act 1986. They are as follows: • Dealing in investments.71 This involves persons in buying, selling,
subscribing for and also in underwriting investments or offering or agreeing to do those things, either as principal or as agent. It is an activity engaged in, for instance, by market makers and also by the ‘treasury’ departments of large companies.72 Paragraph 28(1)(d) of Schedule 173 gives a fairly extended meaning to the terms ‘buying’ and ‘selling’. It provides that, for the purposes of Schedule 1, references to those terms are to be taken as including references to any acquisition or disposal for valuable consideration. Paragraph 28(2) then provides that, in the case of an investment consisting of rights under a contract (or other arrangements), a ‘disposal’ is to be taken as including74 assuming the corresponding liabilities under the contract (or arrangements) or surrendering, assigning or converting those rights. In the case of any other investment, a ‘disposal’ includes issuing or creating the investment or granting the rights or interests of which it consists.75 For the purposes of this activity, references to an ‘offer’ also include references to an invitation to treat.76
