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Investment firm

Applicable regulations, authorisation criterias, licensing procedures and review times, licence extension procedure

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 If you wish to provide investment services, you must apply for an investment firm licence issued by the ACPR. Depending on the proposed investment services, the AMF may be asked to provide its observations to the ACPR or to approve the programme of operations.

Applicable Regulation
Authorisation types  Licence
Competent authority ACPR or AMF where applicable (review of programme of operations)
Legal definition Legal entity other than a credit institution providing investment services in the normal course of its business.

 

Type of transactionsReferences
Investment services cover the financial instruments listed in Article L.211-1 and include:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Art. L.321-1

 

1.Order reception and transmission for third parties;
2.Order execution for third parties;
3.Proprietary trading;
4.Portfolio management for third parties;
5.Investment advice;
6A.Underwriting;
6B.Guaranteed placement;
7.Non-guaranteed placement;
8.Operation of a multilateral trading facility.
Authorisation criterias

Before licensing an investment firm, the ACPR checks the following:

Type of licence requestedObligations
  • Investment firm
  • registered office located and business effectively run in France,
  • sufficient initial capital and appropriate financial resources for the proposed activities,
  • identity and status of direct and indirect shareholders, and the size of their holding
  • the activity must be effectively run by at least two people, whose knowledge, experience and fitness must be demonstrated, both  indovidually and collectively, as must their availability; these persons should also meet the propriety requirements for their position,
  • members of the governing body must meet propriety, knowledge, experience and fitness requirements, both individually and collectively, and also satisfy availability requirements,
  • managers of key functions must meet propriety, knowledge, experience and fitness requirements,
  • suitability of the legal form for the proposed activity,
  • programme of operations for each of the proposed services, and, where applicable, a programme of operations for the portfolio management or investment advice activity approved by the AMF.
Licensing procedures and review times

Before beginning financial activities, you must :

 

 

After receiving your application, the Authorisation Directorate will review your request within 6 months following the transmission of a complete file.

Licence extension procedure

When does an application need to be made for authorisation?

 

Your firm is planning to offer new investment services that are not currently covered by its licence.

 

In this case, you must contact the ACPR to apply to extend the licence granted to your institution before starting these new activities, following the procedure and using the form for the licensing procedure (cf. above). Authorisation will be issued within 4 months following the transmission of a completed file.

 

Please:

  • contact the Secretariat of the Authorisation Directorate (2785-SECRETARIAT-DIRECTION-UT@acpr.banque-france.fr) to organise a meeting to present your plans and proposed timetable;

  • send a detailed request for prior authorisation for an extension of activity accompanied by a licensing application (cf. above), making sure to complete all the relevant sections. In the request, please specify in particular:
    • the strategy followed,
    • the timetable for completing the project,
    • the expected impact of the change in the activity of your institution, by filling out the sections of the form corresponding to your request (notably the proposed programme of operations, forward-looking management information and the supervisory arrangements that you plan to set up).

Updated on: 08/21/2019 11:07