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Financial holding company and combined financial holding companies

Steps to take with respect to the ACPR

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This section concerns companies that have been registered by the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution in the list of financial holding companies because they have as their subsidiaries, either exclusively or principally, one or more credit institutions, investment firms or financial institutions. At least one of these subsidiaries is a credit institution or an investment firm.

 

This section also concerns combined financial holding companies, which are defined as parent companies other than a regulated entity, with registered offices in a Member State of the European Union or in another State party to the EEA, and which, with their subsidiaries, at least one of which is a regulated entity, constitute a financial conglomerate (presence within the same group of financial institutions and insurance companies).

 

If this is the case for your company:

  • it is subject to prudential supervision on a consolidated basis;

 

  • it is required to provide the ACPR with certain information about its registered office and the members of its governing bodies; the appointment of the persons effectively running the undertaking of whom there must be at least two - must be notified to the ACPR, which will ensure that fitness, propriety and experience requirements are met;

 

  • it must seek prior authorisation from the ACPR for the acquisition of a qualifying holding (i.e. at least 10% of the capital or voting rights) in an approved institution.
Steps to take with respect to the ACPR

If your company is registered in the list of finance companies
You must send the Authorisation Directorate a duly completed information file signed by a person effectively running the undertaking.

 

In the event of subsequent changes to the company’s particulars
You must report to the ACPR any changes to the particulars of the financial holding company/combined financial holding company, particularly where these affect:

 

  • composition of the governing bodies;

 

  • share capital;

 

  • group organisation.

 

In this case, please complete an application to change the particulars of a financial holding company/combined financial holding company and send it to the Authorisation Directorate duly signed by a person effectively running the undertaking.

 

In the event of the appointment or departure of a person effectively running the undertaking


If your institution is a financial holding company or a combined financial holding company, you must report to the ACPR within 15 days any new appointment or departure of a person effectively running the undertaking.


The ACPR has two months from receipt of a complete application to challenge the appointment or renewed appointment of persons effectively running the undertaking if it believes that the persons in question do not meet the relevant propriety, fitness and experience requirements.
The two-month period is suspended pending receipt of the observations of the company and the natural person in question in response to the evidence provided in support of the ACPR’s challenge. It may remain suspended until the expiry of the response period, which is set at one month.

 

In this situation, please send the Authorisation Directorate the duly completed application for the appointment of a person effectively running the undertaking, which should be signed by a person effectively running the undertaking or by the chairman of the supervisory board.

 

If the financial holding company or the combined financial holding company is recognised as a "significant institution" within the framework of the Single Supervisory Mechanism, the evaluation procedure follows that used for credit institutions under direct ECB supervision.

 

In the event of the acquisition of a qualifying holding in an approved institution (such as a credit institution, investment firm, finance company or an insurance undertaking):


The financial holding company or combined financial holding company must apply for prior authorisation, under the same conditions as those applicable to any potential buyer taking a stake in the capital of a regulated institution

Updated on: 03/19/2019 15:39