Cap. 484 Art. 2Interpretation.

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires:

"the competent authority" means the Malta Financial Services

Authority established by the Malta Financial Services Authority Act;

"financial instruments" has the same meaning assigned to it by the Financial Markets Act; "investment company" means an investment company with fixed share capital or an investment company with variable share capital, which respective terms shall have the same meaning respectively assigned to them in the Companies Act;

"the Minister"means the Minister responsible for the regulation of financial services;

"originator" or "assignor" means a person, including Government or any Local Council, who:

(a) transfers by any means securitisation assets to a securitisation vehicle, or

(b) enters into any arrangement with a securitisation vehicle for the purpose of transferring any risk in whole or in part to the securitisation vehicle, or

(c) obtains a loan or other facility from a securitisation vehicle, such loan or facility being secured directly or indirectly over securitisation assets, and the term originator or assignor shall also include all its subsidiary undertakings or affiliates;

"receivable" means a right to receive payment of a monetary sum whatsoever, including a right to receive payment of future undetermined sums from debtors who are not yet determined; "risks" means any risks whatsoever, including those arising from any rights relating to assets, whether movable or immovable, tangible or intangible, future or existing, risks resulting from any obligations or activities of third parties and risks arising from any event or circumstance; "securities" has the same meaning assigned to it by the Financial

Markets Act;

(b) assumes any risks from an originator by any means, or

(c) grants secured loan or other secured facility or facilities to an originator, and finances any or all of the above, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, through the issue of financial instruments, and includes any preparatory acts carried out in connection with the above;

"securitisation asset" means any asset, whether existing or future, whether movable or immovable, and whether tangible or intangible, and where the context so allows, includes risks; "securitisation creditors" means all creditors or classes of creditors of a securitisation vehicle, in relation to a securitisation transaction, whose credit is secured by any means whatsoever, whether by security collateral or title transfer collateral, including, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, the originator, any person holding one or more financial instruments issued by the securitisation vehicle, other than a shareholder of the securitisation vehicle, if applicable, any lender, hedge counterparty, liquidity provider and credit support provider of the securitisation vehicle and any trustee acting on any of their behalf;

"securitisation vehicle" means a vehicle as referred to in article 3;

"security collateral" means collateral provided by a collateral provider by way of security in favour of, or to, a collateral taker, and where the full ownership of the collateral remains with the collateral provider, when the security right is established; "title transfer collateral" means collateral provided by a collateral provider, including by repurchase agreements and assignments by way of security, whereby the collateral provider transfers full ownership of the collateral to a collateral taker for the purpose of securing or otherwise covering the performance of any obligation;

"underlying debtor" means, where applicable, a person whose obligation towards an originator has been the object of a securitisation transaction; "writing" shall have the same meaning assigned to it in the Interpretation Act and shall include facsimile transmissions and electronic mail communications.