FINLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Olli Kiuru, Mia Rintasalo and Essi Hietaoja, Waselius
ment services are being offered via a robo-advis - er. The same principles apply when offering crypto- asset services under MiCAR, such as providing advice or portfolio management on crypto- assets (where the assets do not qualify as finan - cial instruments) via robo-adviser. 3.2 Legacy Players’ Implementation of Solutions Introduced by Robo-Advisers Considering the fact that investment services in Finland have been digitalised for a while, robo-advisers are not as established in Finland as one might expect. There are currently three robo-advisers implemented by legacy players in Finland: • with regard to legacy players, Nordea has implemented Nora, which is a robo-adviser providing investment advice upon the com - pletion of a questionnaire; • OP Financial Group has also implemented a robo-adviser, OP Investment Partner, which is a digital investment adviser on OP-mobile and, accordingly, invests in responsible companies by only including companies that are among the best in their sector in terms of ESG-related issues; and • independent robo-advisory firm Evervest Ltd was first acquired by Taaleri Group and there - after by Aktia Bank, which is now running the digital services. 3.3 Issues Relating to Best Execution of Customer Trades With regard to the robo-advisers specified in 3.2 Legacy Players’ Implementation of Solu- tions Introduced by Robo-Advisers , there are no issues in relation to the best execution of customer trades, since they do not execute orders per se. Instead, the requirements appli -
cable to investment firms briefly mentioned in 3.1 Requirement for Different Business Models apply. Nevertheless, issues regarding the best execu - tion of customer trades will arise for robo-advis - ers engaging in, for example, payment transmis - sion and the execution of payment orders, for which the requirements applicable to investment firms (or CASPs, where applicable) apply.
4. Online Lenders 4.1 Differences in the Business or Regulation of Fiat Currency Loans Provided to Different Entities
In Finland, the difference in the regulation of fiat currency loans provided to different entities is mainly threefold. First, the activity of providing loans that are financed via repayable funds received from cus - tomer deposits is defined as credit institution operations, in accordance with the Act on Credit Institutions (ACI), which lays down provisions stipulating the right to engage in the practice of credit institution operations. Accordingly, in order to engage in credit institution operations, authorisation is required through the FIN-FSA. However, in this regard, the ACI does not make a distinction between the provision of loans to small and other types of businesses; it merely lays down the general prerequisites applicable to businesses engaging in credit institution oper - ations, none of which are concerned with the business type of the borrower or its size. Secondly, unlike businesses engaging in credit institution operations, businesses providing loans without the use of repayable funds are not governed under the ACI. However, businesses
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