France moves forward with Blockchain for certain securities exchanges
By Claude-Étienne Armingaud and Emilie Oberlis
Following the adoption of Act no.2016-1691, dated 9 December 2016, on Transparency, Anti-Corruption, and Modernization of Economic Life (“Sapin II” – see our compliance coverage here) and the publication of its responses to a public consultation request on 30 August 2017 (see our coverage here), the French Ministry of Finance published a draft document aimed at adapting the French legal framework to the use of blockchain technology.
The draft (which may be accessed in French here) addresses the possibility for companies, to register the following instruments with a “shared electronic registry”:
- Negotiable debt securities;
- Units or shares of undertakings for collective investment;
- Capital securities issued by corporations and debt securities other than negotiable debt securities, provided that they are not traded on a trading platform.