What is a Professional Investor?

A professional investor is an investor who possesses the experience, knowledge and expertise to make its own investment decisions and properly assess the risks that incurs. In order to be considered to be a professional investor, the investor must comply with the below criteria. 

The investor is any of the following: 

• Entities which are required to be authorized or regulated to operate in the financial markets
• Large undertakings meeting two of the following size requirements on a company basis:
  • Balance sheet total: EUR 20,000,000
  • Net turnover: EUR 40,000,000
  • Own funds: EUR 2,000,000
• National and regional governments, including public bodies that manage public debt at national or regional level, Central Banks, international and supranational institutions such as the World Bank, the IMF, the ECB, the EIB and other similar international organizations
• Other institutional investors whose main activity is to invest in financial instruments, including entities dedicated to the securitisation of assets or other financing transactions

In som cases, investors may also request to be classified as a professional investor if minimum two of the following three criteria are satisfied: 

• The investor has carried out transactions in significant size, on the relevant market at an average frequency of 10 per quarter over the previous four quarters
• The size of your financial instrument portfolio, defined as including cash deposits and financial instruments exceeds EUR 500,000
• You work, or have worked, in the financial sector for at least one year in a professional position, which requires knowledge of the transactions or services envisaged.