L’AMAFI a réalisé avec Opco Atlas, deux nouvelles vidéos destinées à un public jeune, selon les axes de la convention avec le Ministère de l'éducation nationale et de la jeunesse et le Ministère de l'enseignement supérieur, de la recherche et de l'innovation : l'une sur marchés financiers et la transition écologique et l'autre sur l'histoire des marchés financiers.
KOFIA, the association that represents South Korea’s financial markets, hosted members of the International Council of Securities Associations (ICSA) and many other capital market participants from around the world at a two-day gathering in Seoul in June. AMAFI was there, represented by Chief Executive Stéphanie Hubert and Director of European and International Affairs Arnaud Eard. The event comprised two distinct parts: the Annual General Meeting on 19 June, which was reserved for ICSA members, and the international conference on 20 June, which opened up to a wider audience.
Members were able during the AGM to go over their priorities in areas ranging from sustainable finance to the digitalisation of financial services and post-trade topics, especially the switch by some jurisdictions to T+1 settlement. Urban Funered, CEO of the Swedish Securities Markets Association (SSMA), was named Chairman of the ICSA and Stéphanie Hubert was appointed to the Board.
The international conference was an opportunity to recognise the rise of Asia’s financial centres. Stéphanie Hubert represented AMAFI in two panel discussions, on sustainable finance and the EU Listing Act, respectively. During the Listing Act discussion, she underlined AMAFI's position on sponsored research, explaining how the association had spearheaded the creation of a national code of conduct to support the growth of sponsored research, which was a major initiative for SME and mid cap market financing.
The Listing Act package, which aims to make it easier for companies to list in the EU, is currently under negotiation in the European Parliament and is expected to be finalised by the year's end.
In early July, AMAFI submitted proposed amendments to the Parliament's draft report (AMAFI / 23-56), particular in relation to the requirements for preparing prospectuses, multiple voting rights and some of the modifications to the Market Abuse Regulation. Investment research is a major focus area for AMAFI in this context.
Acknowledging that MiFID II adversely impacted funding for SME and mid cap research, the Listing Act proposes to amend the directive in two ways:
First by recognising sponsored research, i.e. research that is entirely or partly paid for by the issuer, as investment research in its own right, provided that it complies with a code of conduct. AMAFI welcomes this development, which draws heavily on the French model introduced following the publication in May 2021 of the AMAFI-AFG-SFAF charter on sponsored research.
However, whereas the European institutions would like ESMA to draw up the code of conduct, AMAFI is recommending that, at least initially, individual member states take on the task, based on guidance from ESMA. This would ensure that the specific features of each market, which remain significant in the case of SME and mid tier capital markets, are accommodated.
Another proposal is to raise the capitalisation threshold below which trading and research fees may be bundled. The level is currently set at EUR 1 billion, and several thresholds have been put forward, ranging up to EUR 10 billion. While AMAFI is extremely doubtful about the effectiveness of this measure, it believes that EUR 5 billion would be an appropriate threshold, as this would most accurately match the SME/mid cap segment according to investors.
An AMAFI delegation led by Chairman Stéphane Giordano met with Salvatore Gnoni, head of ESMA's Investor Protection Unit, to talk about this issue. AMAFI highlighted the major role played by sponsored research in compensating for the post-MiFID II downturn in SME/mid cap research coverage. The delegation also reviewed the principles underpinning France’s charter on sponsored research. While AMAFI stressed the importance of a local approach, Salvatore Gnoni argued that the goal of harmonisation should take precedence.
As part of the EMIR review, AMAFI teamed up with France’s Banking Federation, the FBF (AMAFI / 23-66), to highlight three critical issues for European participants: repatriation of clearing to the EU (cf. p.6 Newsletter n°50), the clearing obligations of UK pension funds and margin requirements for equity options.
Under domestic regulations, UK pension funds are not subject to a clearing requirement for derivatives transactions. The European Commission previously granted an EMIR exemption to European firms so that they could trade on a level footing with UK pension funds, but that authorisation expired in June. With EMIR 3.0 proposing to do away with the obligation, a way must now be found to extend the exemption until the new regulation comes into application.
A similar issue affects the margin requirements for OTC equity options. Here again, EMIR 3.0 proposes to do away with this obligation. An exemption is in place until January 2024 and will need to be extended until the regulation enters into application.
Among the steps taken by AMAFI, a delegation led by Stéphane Giordano broached these two topics with Jennifer Robertson, head of DG FISMA's Market Infrastructures Unit. While Ms Robertson said that she understood the competitiveness challenges for the industry, she also pointed out that the Commission had limited means of action, including in terms of legal remedies, hence the need for the co-legislators to ratify their respective positions as swiftly as possible. AMAFI will nevertheless continue to work on these issues.
