France overhauls canvassing and financial advice regimes laws

Olivier Bertin-Mourot and Bruno Fatier, Clifford Chance, Paris

One of the main aims of the new French Financial Security Law ( loi de sécurité financière no. 2003-706) is to establish the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) as the single authority for the regulation of exchanges and financial markets. However, the Financial Security Law also affects the banking and finance industry in many other different ways, not the least of which being the reform of the long outdated French banking and financial canvassing rules and the creation of a regulated profession out of all the various types of financial advisors that currently operate without a licence in France. For the most part, these new rules came into force on 3 August 2003, although some must await the formation of the AMF or the adoption of implementing decrees.