AMF Public Consultation on ICOs

The AMF launched a public consultation on Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) on 26 October 2017 in order to assess how these fundraisings could be regulated. Out of the three regulatory options proposed by the AMF, most of the respondents indicated that they would support the setting-up of a specific legislation for ICOs, which requires the publication of a document providing essential information to the investors.

The AMF Board will continue working on such a regulatory specific regime together with other French authorities.

Read the news release.

AMF Position on Corporate Finance Advisers

Pursuant to the AMF public consultation held last year, the AMF has published a Position n° 2018-03 clarifying the regime applicable to corporate financer advisers (i.e. persons providing consultancy services advice, mainly in relation to M&A advice). The AMF Position provides that such services constitute related services as defined in article L. 321-2(3) of the French monetary and financial code and therefore do not require a prior agreement. The Position further provides examples in order to determine precisely which services are provided by such advisers.

Read the AMF summary (in French).

AMF Analysis on the Legal Qualification of Cryptocurrency Derivatives

The AMF published on 22 February 2018 an analysis as to the legal qualification of cryptocurrency derivatives.

In this analysis, the AMF considers that any offer of cryptocurrency derivative may qualify as a derivative pursuant to MiFID 2, and would therefore need to comply with several obligations including prior authorization of the AMF, conduct of business rules and EMIR trade reporting.

Read the news release.