Recital (11)

As the financial intermediaries most often engaged in the securities’ payment chains are large institutions as defined in Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council as well as central securities depositories providing withholding tax agent services, those entities should be obliged to request to be registered with the national registers of Member States. Where such entities operate through a branch or branches or through one or more subsidiaries in any Member State, they should be permitted to fulfil the registration obligation in each source Member State either as one certified financial intermediary at group level or at individual branch or subsidiary level or a combination thereof. Other financial intermediaries should also be allowed to request to be registered with the national registers of Member States at their discretion. In both situations, either under mandatory or voluntary registration, financial intermediaries should have the flexibility to make the request themselves or to be represented by another financial intermediary that is part of the same group and that acts on their behalf in order to minimise the administrative burden and impact on how they wish to be organised. Financial intermediaries should request to be registered by submitting a request through the European Certified Financial Intermediary Portal (the Portal), that should serve as a single entry point. Such requests should be forwarded through the Portal to the relevant Member States. Subsequently, the Member States should decide on the request for registration. Therefore the Portal should serve as a tool that reflects the decisions of the Member States with regard to the registration of financial intermediaries.