Market infrastructure – France
Institutions and organisation
Stock exchange (www.euronext.com)
The Paris Stock Exchange is a wholly owned subsidiary of Euronext, the European stock exchange for Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Lisbon, Milan, Oslo and Paris. The Paris location of Euronext manages the joint cash (shares and bonds) market. Derivatives are jointly managed in Amsterdam while Brussels is responsible for the management of the joint smaller and younger exchange securities.
CSD – Euroclear France S.A. (formerly Sicovam) (www.euroclear.fr)
Euroclear France (EF) is a subsidiary of Euroclear SA/NV. Local issuers, banks and brokers maintain an account in EF.
Central bank – Banque de France (BdF) (www.banque-france.fr)
The Banque de France forms part of the Eurosystem which comprises the European Central Bank (ECB) and the national central banks of the EU member states whose currency is the euro. The Eurosystem jointly devises the monetary policy, that is, the Banque de France ensures that this policy is deployed in France. It also participates in the decisions made by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
European Central Bank (ECB) (www.ecb.europa.eu)
The European Central Bank is responsible for the prudential supervision of credit institutions located in the euro area and participating non-euro area member states. It directly supervises significant credit institutions in these countries, less significant credit institutions are directly supervised by the respective national competent authorities.
Regulatory structure
The French market is supervised by the Autorités des Marchés Financiers (AMF)1, which acts as the supervisory authority for financial markets and settlement systems.
------------------------------------------
1. The former three regulatory bodies, Conseil des Marchés Financiers (CMF), Commission des Opérations de Bourse (COB) and Conseil de Discipline de la Gestion Financière (CDGF) were grouped to form the AMF as a single regulatory body on 1 August 2003.