Article 1

For the purposes of this Directive:

1. 'investment firm` shall mean an investment firm as defined in Article 1 (2) of Directive 93/22/EEC

- authorized in accordance with Article 3 of Directive 93/22/EEC,

or

- authorized as a credit institution in accordance with Council Directive 77/780/EEC (7) and Council Directive 89/646/EEC (8), the authorization of which covers one or more of the investment services listed in Section A of the Annex to Directive 93/22/EEC;

2. 'investment business` shall mean any investment service as defined in Article 1 (1) of Directive 93/22/EEC and the service referred to in point 1 of Section C of the Annex to that Directive,

3. 'instruments` shall mean the instruments listed in Section B of the Annex to Directive 93/22/EEC;

4. 'investor` shall mean any person who has entrusted money or instruments to an investment firm in connection with investment business;

5. 'branch` shall mean a place of business which is a part of an investment firm, which has no legal personality and which provides investment services for which the investment firm has been authorized; all the places of business set up in the same Member State by an investment firm with headquarters in another Member State shall be regarded as a single branch;

6. 'joint investment business` shall mean investment business carried out for the account of two or more persons or over which two or more persons have rights that may be exercised by means of the signature of one or more of those persons;

7. 'competent authorities` shall mean the authorities defined in Article 22 of Directive 93/22/EEC; those authorities may, if appropriate, be those defined in Article 1 of Council Directive 92/30/EEC of 6 April 1992 on the supervision of credit institutions on a consolidated basis (9).