What is the legal status of money held in a research payment account (RPA) established under Article 13(1)(b) of the MiFID II Delegated Directive, prior to it being used to pay providers for research?

If a firm provides both the services of order execution and transmission of orders to other firms (i.e. to a third party for execution), will they need to produce two sets of top-five reports, or will a single, consolidated report suffice?

What is the latest date after year-end by which firms executing or transmitting client orders, or portfolio managers, should publish the report showing their top five execution venues or firms where they have sent client orders and information about the quality of the execution they obtained?

Where execution venues and firms publish reports as required under RTS 27 and 28 , how long should the reports be kept in the public domain and freely accessible?

Article 38(1) of the MiFID II Delegated Regulation applies to “investment firms which provide advice on corporate finance strategy as set out in Section B(3) of Annex I of MIFID II and provide the service of underwriting or placing of financial instruments”. Does this Article apply to investment firms acting as a manager or a member of the syndicate for a specific offering?