Brussels, 15/11/2002 (Agence Europe) - Frits Bolkestein, Commissioner for Financial Services, is to present to the Commission, next Tuesday, a proposal of directive fixing the operational terms and conditions for companies and banks serving as intermediaries for the sale and purchase of shares. It will modernise the 1992 directive on investment services creating a "single passport" for these services, in order to adjust to market evolution. It is mainly a matter of taking the development of electronic brokering and the new kinds of service provision into account, in the context of alternative transaction systems (ATS). The text should strengthen the principle of control in the country of origin of the service provider, by limiting restrictions that can be imposed by the host country to protect small investors and not on transactions between professionals. In this respect, it should specify the definition of professional investor. The new directive will clarify the obligations and the information to be provided by the investment companies and services. One of the points of divergence possible covers the information on prices that should be provided before the transaction, when such a transaction takes place within a company or bank.