French Monetary and Financial Code
In forceI.-In order to provide one or more of the services referred to in Article L. 54-10-2 on a regular professional basis, service providers established in France may apply for authorisation from the Autorité des marchés financiers, under conditions laid down by decree.
Approved service providers must at all times have:
1° Professional indemnity insurance or own funds, the level of which is set by the General Regulation of the Autorité des marchés financiers;
2° Adequate security and internal control arrangements;
3° A resilient and secure IT system;
4° A system for managing conflicts of interest.
They provide their customers with clear, accurate and non-misleading information, in particular promotional information, which is identified as such. They warn customers of the risks associated with digital assets.
They make their pricing policies public. They establish and implement a policy for managing customer complaints and ensure that they are dealt with promptly.
The AMF shall verify the security of the information systems of service providers approved in accordance with this article and may seek the opinion of the national authority in charge of information systems security for this purpose.
II.Service providers approved to provide the service referred to in 1° of Article L. 54-10-2 shall in particular comply with the following obligations, under the conditions and within the limits laid down by the General Regulation of the Autorité des marchés financiers:
1° They shall enter into an agreement with their customers defining their duties and responsibilities;
2° They shall draw up a custody policy;
3° They shall ensure that the necessary resources are in place for the prompt return of digital assets or access to digital assets held on behalf of their customers;
4° They segregate holdings on behalf of their customers from their own holdings;
5° They refrain from using digital assets or cryptographic keys held on behalf of their customers, except with the express prior consent of the customers.
III.Service providers approved to provide the services mentioned in 2° and 3° of Article L. 54-10-2 shall comply with the following obligations, under the conditions and within the limits laid down by the General Regulation of the Autorité des marchés financiers:
1° They shall establish a non-discriminatory commercial policy;
2° They shall publish a firm price for digital assets or a method for determining the price of digital assets;
3° They shall publish the volumes and prices of the transactions they have carried out;
4° They shall execute their clients' orders at the prices displayed at the time they are received.
IV.-(Repealed)
V.-Service providers authorised to provide the service referred to in 4° of Article L. 54-10-2 shall comply with the following obligations, under the conditions and within the limits laid down by the General Regulation of the Autorité des marchés financiers:
1° (Repealed)
2° (Repealed)
3° (Repealed)
4° They shall establish operating rules. These rules shall be drawn up in French or, in the cases defined by the general regulations of the Autorité des marchés financiers, in another language customary in financial matters;
5° They shall ensure fair and orderly trading;
6° They shall commit their own capital on the platforms they manage only in accordance with the conditions and limits set by the general regulations of the Autorité des marchés financiers;
7° They shall publish details of orders and transactions concluded on their platforms.
VI.Providers authorised to provide the service referred to in 5° of Article L. 54-10-2 comply with the following obligations, under the conditions and within the limits laid down by the General Regulation of the Autorité des marchés financiers:
1° The persons who effectively manage the service provider must prove that they are of sufficiently good repute and are competent to carry out their duties;
2° Natural persons who either directly or indirectly hold more than 25% of the capital or voting rights of the service provider, or who exercise, by any other means, a power of control over the service provider within the meaning of 3° and 4° of I of Article L. 233-3 of the Commercial Code demonstrate that they guarantee the sound and prudent management of the service provider and that they are of sufficiently good repute and competent;
3° The service providers demonstrate that they are able to comply with their obligations in terms of the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, the freezing of assets and the prohibition on making assets available by implementing an organisation and procedures designed to ensure compliance with the obligations set out in Articles L. 561-4-1 to L. 561-5-1, L. 561-10-2 and L. 561-15 and the regulations adopted for their application, as well as Chapter II of Title VI of this Book and the European regulations on restrictive measures adopted pursuant to Articles 75 or 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union ;
4° They have a programme of activity for each of the services they intend to provide, specifying the conditions under which they intend to provide the services concerned and indicating the type of operations envisaged and the structure of their organisation;
5° They have the appropriate resources to implement the said programme;
6° With a view to providing the services mentioned in b and c of 5° of Article L. 54-10-2, they obtain from their customers the information necessary to recommend digital assets appropriate to their situation.
VII -The AMF shall publish the list of providers approved in accordance with I of this article, specifying the digital asset services mentioned in Article L. 54-10-2 for which they are approved to provide.
VIII -The AMF shall withdraw the authorisation of an ISP authorised in accordance with Article I at the request of the ISP concerned. It may also be decided ex officio by the AMF if the authorised ISP no longer fulfils the conditions laid down in this article or the undertakings to which its authorisation or a subsequent authorisation was subject. Such a decision may also be taken if the authorised provider has obtained authorisation by making false declarations or by any other irregular means.
Withdrawal of authorisation may be ordered by the Autorité des marchés financiers on a permanent basis or until the authorised provider once again meets the conditions for authorisation.
If, after having applied for authorisation from the Autorité des marchés financiers or not, a person disseminates information containing inaccurate or misleading information concerning the granting of authorisation, its scope or its consequences, the Autorité des marchés financiers may make a public statement mentioning these facts and the persons responsible for these communications.
