AMF: Consultation on new shorter transaction settlement deadline

27 June 2014

AMF has launched a consultation on amendments to Books III and V of its General Regulation. This is to allow the Paris marketplace to shorten the settlement cycle of securities to two business days after trading in anticipation of a European-level harmonisation.

The regulation on Central Securities Depositories was adopted on 15 April 2014 by the European Parliament, and requires the harmonisation of securities settlement systems across the EU. From 1st January 2015, it will be mandatory for all securities traded on organised markets (1) to be settled at the latest on the second working day after the trade (“T+2”). In France the deadline is currently set at “T+3” and must therefore change.

However, the Paris marketplace wishes to make this change earlier; as of 6 October 2014. The AMF therefore proposes to amend some of the provisions of Books III and V of its General Regulation pertaining to service providers and market infrastructures.

These amendments relate to: 

• the settlement deadline, in order to allow market infrastructures to include in their operating rules a settlement deadline that is no longer equal to three days but is “a maximum of three days”;
•  the deadlines for transmission of the slips containing the nominative references of holders of registered shares between the account-keeping institutions, the central depository and the issuer, in order to proceed with timely transfer of ownership.

The public consultation will be open until 14 July inclusive.

 

Press release

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