Financial instrument | Practical Law

Financial instrument | Practical Law

Financial instrument

Financial instrument

Practical Law UK Glossary 4-200-9252 (Approx. 5 pages)

Glossary

Financial instrument

An instrument specified in Part 1 of Schedule 2 to the Regulated Activities Order (SI 2001/544) (RAO), in summary:
  • Transferable security as defined in section 102A of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA) and, in turn as defined in UK MiFIR, other than money-market instruments for the purposes of UK MiFIR with a maturity of under 12 months.
  • Money-market instrument.
  • Unit in a collective investment undertaking.
  • Option, future, swap, forward rate agreement and any other derivative contract relating to securities, currencies, interest rates or yields, emission allowances or other derivatives instruments, financial indices or financial measures which may be settled physically or in cash.
  • Option, future, swap, forward and any other derivative contract relating to commodities that must be settled in cash or may be settled in cash at the option of one of the parties (other than by reason of a default or other termination event).
  • Option, future, swap, and any other derivative contract relating to commodities that can be physically settled provided that they are traded on a UK regulated market, a UK MTF or a UK OTF (as defined in Article 2(1)(13A), (14A) and (15A) respectively of UK MiFIR) except for wholesale energy products traded on a UK OTF that must be physically settled.
  • Option, future, swap, forward and any other derivative contract relating to commodities, that can be physically settled and not otherwise mentioned in the above bullet point and not being for commercial purposes or wholesale energy products traded on an EU OTF (as defined in Article 2(1)(15B) of UK MiFIR) that must be physically settled, which have the characteristics of other derivative financial instruments.
  • Derivative instrument for the transfer of credit risk.
  • Financial contract for differences.
  • Option, future, swap, forward rate agreement and any other derivative contract relating to climatic variables, freight rates or inflation rates or other official economic statistics that must be settled in cash or may be settled in cash at the option of one of the parties (other than by reason of default or other termination event), as well as any other derivative contract relating to assets, rights, obligations, indices and measures not otherwise mentioned, which have the characteristics of other derivative financial instruments, having regard to whether, inter alia, they are traded on a UK regulated market, a UK OTF, or a UK MTF.
  • Emission allowance consisting of any unit recognised for compliance with the requirements of the EU ETS Directive (2003/87/EC) and emission allowances created under Article 18 of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme Order 2020 (SI 2020/1265).
In relation to the UK Market Abuse Regulation (UK MAR), as well as DTR 1, DTR 2 and DTR 3, financial instrument has the meaning set out above, read with Part 2 of Schedule 2 to the RAO for bullets six and seven above regarding wholesale energy products that must be physically settled.
When considering this term in the context of financial services, reference should be made to the FCA Handbook glossary definition of financial instrument.