Activities

Complete reference : Frison-Roche, M.-A., The tools of Compliance and the Theorie of Climates, in "Geographical pregance in Compliance Tools" (Les outils de la Compliance et la Théorie des climats, in La prégnance géographique dans les outils de la Compliance), February 4, 2020, Nice.    Conference Summary: Starting from Montesquieu's "climate theory", affirming that human beings would be of a different nature in different places of the world, which therefore requires different rules of government according to these places, a theory which echoes the geographical confinement that Pascal operated on the Laws, we can think that, as with any rule, Compliance legal rules, which ensure compliance of the behavior of human beings to the rules, this will vary depending on whether we are below or beyond the Pyrenees. But on this geographical dimension so natural one can on the contrary and at first doubt. Indeed, by presenting it as a simple process, which artificial intelligence based on algorithms could fully take care of, by its absence of substance this dimension loses all relevance. Except falling into the other excess consisting in posing that everything is only a question of "pure compliance culture" or that this is only the dressing of a pure balance of power, between geographical areas, for example the United States and Europe, and in this Law of palisade geo-politics is to such an extent that it would have devoured Law. It is necessary to keep the measure of things and on the contrary organize in a second time a kind of triptych and firstly find what comes from the accumulation of technical and immutable information, secondly what comes from local phenomena but requieres global standards of compliance which can be technically attached because of their "crucial nature" and thirdly also assume "political pretensions of monumental goals" which contest the borders and the branches of the Law which guard these.  If we manage to do this, then Compliance Law not only manages to get rid of what undermines it, that is, its mechanical temptation offered by technology and its disappearance by political power, keeping substance without being violent. . Indeed by respecting geography the West does not have to dictate "its" law. On the contrary, it must take concrete lying to the Kanak Law, which does not define the Law as what is stated and applied, but as a 'path'. Thus in the technique of responsible investments, because the Law of Compliance is teleological, the Subject of law, that is to say the company (which is in position, for example that invests) does not prohibit but organizes the transition so that the beneficiary of the device is not himself sanctioned, for example abandoned to corruption, but accompanied towards the exit of the system. The integration of time and the concept of 'duration', common to compliance law and regulation law (the Law of Compliance being the internalisation of Regulations in entities capable of implementing them) involving the articulation between the territory and duration (which is not permitted by Competition Law).     Read the presentation of this conference on the Geographical pregnance in Compliance Tools  See the other conferences of the complete cycle on Compliance Tools. Read the general presentation of the conferences cycle.   Read the working paper which is the basis of this conference.    Consult the slides on which the conference is based (in French).   Summary : Starting from Pascal's "climate theory", one might think, as with any rule, Compliance, which ensures that human behaviour conforms to the rules, it varies, depending on whether one is "below or beyond the Pyrenees". . But of this geographical dimension so natural, on the contrary and at first one can doubt. Indeed by presenting Compliance as a simple process, which artificial intelligence based on algorithms could fully support, by its absence of substance this geographical dimension loses all relevance. Except to fall into the other excess of asking that everything is only a matter of 'compliance culture' or that it is the dressing of a pure balance of power, between geographical political areas, for example the United States and Europe, and in this Law of façade the geo-politics is at this point all that it would have devoured Law. We need to keep Reason, instead organizing a kind of tryptic and find what is the accumulation of technical and immutable information, which is local phenomena but to which standards of global Compliance can be technically attached because of their "crucial nature" and also assume "political pretensions of monumental goals" that challenge the borders and branches of Law that guard them. If we manage to do this, then not only  Compliance Law manages to get rid of what undermines it, that is its mechanical temptation offered by technology and its disappearance by political power, keeping substance without being violent. . Indeed by respecting geography the West does not have to dictate "its" Law. On the contrary, it must take concrete conception, borrowing to Kanak Law, which does not define Law as what is stated and applied, but as a 'path'. Thus in the technique of responsible investments, because Compliance Law is teleological, the subject of law, that is to say the company (which is in position, for example to invests) does not prohibit but organizes the transition so that the beneficiary of the device is not himself sanctioned, for example abandoned to corruption, but accompanied towards the exit of the system of corruption. The integration of time and the concept of 'duration', common to Compliance Law and Regulation Law (the Law of Compliance being the internalisation of Regulations in entities capable of implementing them) involving the articulation between the territory and duration (which is not the rule of Competition Law). 

The cycle of conferences Les outils de la Compliance (The Compliance tools) began in November 2019 and runs until June 2020. It is organized by The Journal of Regulation & Compliance and all of its partner universities. It includes a conference more particularly devoted to the theme of "La prégnance géographique dans le choix et l'usage des outils de la Compliance" ("Geographic significance in the choice and use of Compliance tools"). See the other thematics, others dates and other particular manifestations,  builting the complete cycle   Conference and Debate  (in French)  Thuesday, February 4, 2020, 16h30– 19h30  Law & Political Sciences School Doyen Louis Trotabas Avenue, 06050 Nice Cedex. Amphithéâtre Bonnecarrère, Villa Passiflore,   General Presentation:  Compliance is a global phenomenon. In this, it illustrates the problematic of a Global Law. However, it should not be inferred that Compliance is applied in the same way everywhere in the world. Like any legal institution, it is integrated into a preexisting legal framework, shaped by culture and history. The aim of the conference is to explore geographic significance in Compliance Tools, that is to say the potentially different way in which these tools are chosen and used depending on the geographic area concerned. The three geographic areas studied will mainly be Europe, the United States and Africa. Opportunity will thus be given to highlight the convergences and divergences in the implementation of Compliance Tools in a geographic vision of the institution.   Under the scientific direction of Jean-Baptiste Racine, professor at the University Côté d'Azur (Law & Political Sciences School of Nice), GREDEG-CREDECO, CNRS UMR 7321 With the interventions of: – Jean-Baptiste Racine, professor at the University Côté d'Azur , Nice – Mahmoud Mohammed Salah, Law professor at the University of Nouakchott, Mauritany – Karen Coppens, Dechert LLP – Mads Andenas, Law professor at the University of Oslo, Norway – Marie-Anne Frison-Roche, Law professor at Sciences Po, Paris   -   -   Read the registration procedure  for this conference. Consult the gele calendar of upcoming events. Consult the presentation of the book to be published "Compliance Tools".   Go back to general presentation of the Conferences' cycle "Compliance Tools".   Inscription : anouk.leguillou@mafr.fr -      

The cycle of conferences Les outils de la Compliance (The Compliance tools) began in November 2019 and runs until June 2020. It is organized by The Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and all of its partner universities. It includes a conference more particularly devoted to the theme of "Les expertises requises dans l'Ex Ante de la Compliance" ("The expertises required in the Ex Ante of Compliance"). See the other thematics, other dates and other particular manifestations,  building the complete cycle   Conference – Debate  Wednesday, January 29, 2020, 18h30-20h  in the amphitheater of the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry  Friedland Avenue, 27, 75008 Paris   General Presentation After examining various specific tools, such as Risk mapping or Incentives, these showing that the tools only have their efficiency through their use designed and carried out by human beings, endowed themselves with the required expertise. But it is often because it is very difficult to identify and define these "skills" that operators subject to the Ex Ante Compliance obligations end up entrusting this observance to machines, via Compliance by Design … The mass of what should actually be observed leads to favoring massification expertise, as the "Regtech" handle it. But the rules being a living thing, Company Law adjoins Governance and one must know both. In the same way as the mastery of Ex Ante supposes that one always thinks of Ex Post (sanction for failure in the Ex Ante), so that this Ex Post does not appear, under its unwelcome face of Repressive Law which therefore must be anticipated and therefore present in Ex Ante. In the same way, Tax Compliance presupposes that the State must be present in the good technical conception of Compliance. Compliance being the means by which States internalize their "monumental goals", or even confront each other under the mask of companies, it is then international policies in question, and this political expertise is required in Ex Ante. -   under the scientific direction of Marie-Anne Frison-Roche, professor fo Regulatory Law Compliance Law at Sciences Po.   with  : –  –  Antoinette Gutierrez-Crespin, partner, department  Forensic & Integrity Services EY France. – François Barrière and Sidne Koenigsberg, Skadden – Pierre Vimont, Senior Fellow, Carnegie Europe –  Benjamin Jean, president of Open Law –  Thomas Amico, Linklaters     - Read the registration procedure  for this conference. Consult the general calendar of upcoming events. Consult the presentation of the book to be published "Compliance Tools".   Go back to general presentation of the Conferences' cycle "Compliance Tools".   Inscription : anouk.leguillou@mafr.fr        

► Full Reference : A.-M. Leroyer, Droit des successions (Law of Succession), 4th ed., 2020, Dalloz, “Cours Dalloz-Série Droit privé” Series, 526 p. - 📕Read the back cover (in French) - 📕Read the table of contents (in French) - 📚See the entire collection in which the book is published. -

Watch the video commenting on the decision of the Commission des sanctions of the Autorité des marchés financiers – AMF (French Financial Market Authority Sanctions Commission). Read the decision. -   In 2015, a document supposedly emanating from the Vinci company reached the Bloomberg media announcing unexpected catastrophic results. The two journalists who received it immediately published it without checking anything, the Vinci listed shares losing more than 18%. It was a rude forgery, which a basic check would have established, a check which the journalists had not done. 4 years later, the Bloomerg company is punished for the breach to "disseminate false information" on the financial market, by a decision of the Sanctions Commission of the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (French Financial Markets Authority) of December 11, 2019. The company being sued argued that it was up to journalists to be accountable and not to itself, because on the contrary the firm had implemented both detection software and a code of conduct, even though there was no legal rule constraining it. In consequence, it would not possible to pursue it. But the AMF Sanctions Commission stresses that, independently of this, it is a general rule of ethics for journalists that obliges them to verify the authenticity of the documents they publish, which they did not, whereas an elementary check would have allowed them to measure that it is a rude forgery. In addition, the Sanctions Commission refers to the European Regulation on market abuses which in its article 21 targets the special status to be reserved for press freedom and the special status of journalists, but associates this ethical obligation to verify documents . However, the Sanctions Commission notes that this obligation, which was targeted by both the journalists' ethics and the reference text of Financial Law, was completely ignored by the two journalists. It is therefore up to the press agency to be accountable and to be punished. However, the media entreprise maintained that the balance between the principle of freedom of the press and the principle of freedom of opinion on the one hand and the principle of the protection of the financial market and of investors against false information disseminated requires an interpretation of the European Union Law, which must oblige the Sanctions Commission to ask a preliminary question to the Court of Justice of the European Union. The Sanctions Commission dismisses this request because it considers that the European texts are "clear", which allows the Sanctions Commission to interpret them itself. And precisely the European Regulation on market abuse in its article 21 provides for the exception in favor of the press and journalists but compels them to respect their ethics, in particular the verification of the authenticity of documents. In this case, they did nothing. They are clearly the authors of a breach attributable to the company. - In a less clear case, one could consider that this balance between two principles, both of public interest, is delicate and that an interpretation by the Court of Justice would always be useful. Indeed and more fundamentally, does Financial Law remain an autonomous Law, putting first the objective of the preservation of the integration of the financial market and the protection of investors or is it the advanced point of an Information Law protecting everyone against the action of any "influencer" (category to which Bloomberg belongs) consisting in disseminating inaccurate information (notion of "misinformation")? And that is not so "clear" ….   -

Reference Frison-Roche, M.-A., Le droit de la compliance pour réguler l'internet  (Compliance Law to Regulate the Internet), Interview given in French to Sylvie Rozenfeld, Expertises, December 2019, pp. 385-390.   Summary. Law seems increasingly powerless to stem the social disorder generated by the Internet. For Marie-Anne Frison-Roche, Law professor and specialist in Regulatory Law, the solution is to be found in Law, and more particularly in Compliance Law. This specific Law is already applied in the banking and finance sector, or in the area of ​​personal data. As it has done for green finance and through the GDPR, Europe could impose a compliance system which internalizes concern for the individual in large digital operators. It is up to them to put in place the means and bear the cost, such as the right to be forgotten erected by the CJEU. Marie-Anne Frison-Roche does not offer anything revolutionary, she is content to take elements of positive law that already exist and to correlate them.   Read the interview (in French)   Read the presentation of the official Report for the French Government about which this interview is given:: The contribution of Compliance Law to the Governance of Internet. 

Watch the video that presents, analyzes and measures the scope of the Commission des sanctions de l'Autorité des marchés financiers – AMF (French Financial Markets Authority Sanctions Committee) of December 4, 2019, Morgan Stanley International. - The bank, through its British subsidiary, had to answer before the Sanctions Committee of the Authority of the financial markets where it contested a notification of price manipulation grievances on financial instruments based on specific securities (OAT) issued by the Public Treasury French and put on  the regulated market, these first various financial instruments being themselves built elsewhere and offered on various national financial markets, for example for France FOAT, which are futures on these OAT not traded on a regulated market. The sentencing decision of 4 December 2019 is instructive. On the very principle of the competence of the administrative sanctioning authority (I) and on the evidentiary mechanism of the facts (II). This corresponded to the "3 elements of the infringement", which should in principle be found in the repressive administrative law, which is a "criminal matter." But as expressly stated in the decision, the intentional element is not required for market abuse. There remains therefore the legal element, which requires that the behavior be precisely targeted by a text, and the material element.   Let's see their fate.   I. LE PRINCIPE DE LEGALITE DES DELITS ET DES PEINES N'ENTRAVE PAS L'EFFET NATUREL DE LA DEFINITION "NATURELLE" DU COURS DU TITRE SOUS-JACENT AFFECTE PAR LA MANIPULATION En premier lieu la Banque contestait la compétence même du Régulateur à en connaître car ce n'est que postérieurement aux faits reprochés que les textes applicables ont dit qu'étaient sanctionnables les agissement sur des instruments financiers "liés" aux instruments financiers émis sur un marché réglementé. Au nom du principe d'analyse restrictive et de la non-rétroactivité des textes d'incrimination qui gouvernent la matière pénale, la Banque soutenait n'être pas apte à être poursuivie. La Commission des sanction écarte le moyen en affirmant qu'elle respecte ces principes inhérents à la matière pénale, mais qu'il faut regarder la finalité des textes. Or la manipulation de cours, manquement ici en cause, est un manquement parce que l'agissement a pour objet ou pour effet de perturber le cours du titre qui est sur le marché réglementé. En agissant sur un instrument financier, même situé sur un marché non-réglementé, dont le sous-jacent est sur un marché réglement, le cours de celui-ci est perturbé, alors la manipulation du premier ayant pour effet de perturbé le cours du second justifie la pourrsuite et la sanction. Sans qu'il y ait rétroactivité des textes.    II. LES PRESOMPTIONS SIMPLES D'AGISSEMENTS LEGITIMES OU ILLEGITIMES SUR LES TITRES ET LE "FAIT JUSTIFICATIF DE COMPLIANCE" En second lieu, la Banque soutient que son action sur les différents instruments financiers sur les différents marchés a été justifiée par son intérêt légitime démontré en raison de l'absence de liquidité du titre et pour dénouer une position déficitaire appelant une intervention massive dans un temps très court de sa part sur plusieurs marchés en même temps et que si le cours en a été modifié, il n'en est pas devenu pour autant "anormal", ce qui est un élément matériel du manquement.  La Commission des sanctions pose tout d'abord que l'opérateur peut à la fois avoir des motifs légitimes démontrés d'agir sur un titre et néanmoins opérer sur celui-ci une manipulation de cours.  Revenant sur la définition de la manipulation de cours, la Commission ne reprend pas la notion d'"anormalité" dans le sens où il faudrait que le cours ne soit pas conforme aux attentes, il faut mais il suffit qu'il soit inattendu : le "normal" est donc dans le sens de l'inhabituel. Si la Banque parvient à justifier son action, comme elle arrive à le faire pour un titre (le FGBL et FGBX), alors il n'y a pas de sanction (n°90 de la décision) mais dans les autres cas la Commission estime que les agissements ont eu pour effet de faire varier le cours des sous-jacents émis par le Trésor public français (OAT), ne s'expliquent pas autrement, les autres opérateurs agissant comme si la hause de la valeur des OAT avait une autre origine. Or, la Banque avant cet effet a revendu immédiatement les OAT. L'ensemble des agissements ayant duré moins d'un quart d'heure, la Commission considère que l'élément matériel de la manipulation de cours est constitué.  Pourtant la Banque se prévalait d'une sorte de fait justificatif : elle avait agi en "conformité" avec "une pratique de marché" (article 631-1 Réglement général de l'AMF).  La Commission récuse cela, car elle considère que ce texte ne vise que trois hypothèses : contrats de liquidité obligatoires, contrats de liquidité sur actions et acquisitions d'actions…. pour les opérations de croissance externe". C'est donc tout à fait une conception très restrictive que la Commission adopte pour ce qui vient en restriction des textes répressifs…. Quand à "l'intention manipulatoire", les choses sont encore plus claire. Pour sanctionner un manquement, il n'est besoin d'aucune démonstration d'une intention puisque les textes sur les abus de marché "ne font référence pas à un quelconque élément intentionnel"… Pour se protéger, la Commission estime que l'intention découle de toutes les façons du manquement…   QU'EN PENSER ? Il est probable que cette décision fera l'objet d'un recours.  L'on comprend bien le raisonnement du Régulateur. Il fait prévaloir l'efficacité, la sanction n'étant qu'un moyen de préservation l'intégrité du système financier dans son coeur même à savoir le caractère adéquat des prix des instruments qui y sont offerts. En cela la sanction n'est qu'un instrument au service du marché, n'est qu'un instrument de Compliance.  Il est assez savoureux, et amer, de lire comment la "conformité à une pratique de marché" est balayée d'un revers de main, le caractère général, de principe et téléologique n'étant tout à coup plus un raisonnement recevable…. Il est vrai que le Conseil d'État conçoit la sanction de la même façon. A propos du mécanisme de gel des avoirs, autre instrument du Droit de la Compliance, la sanction infligée à une banque par l'ACPR est maniée de la même façon. Mais que reste-t-il du Droit pénal, qui devait innerver dans son esprit et ses principes fondamentaux, repris dans la "matière pénale" le Droit administratif répressif ? Comment ne pas être inquiet quand il est désormais affirmé que d'élément intentionnel, il n'en est plus besoin ? L'on peut effectivement penser que le Droit retient la sanction, et l'accroît, mais met de côté la matière pénale : de la répression sans droit pénal… N'est-ce pas un oxymore ? Ne faut-il pas chercher au moins à le résoudre ?  -

Watch the video explaining the content, meaning and scope of the decision made by the Conseil d'État (French Council of State) on November 15, 2019, La Banque Postale v. Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution (ACPR). The Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution – ACPR (French Authority of prudential control and resolution) pronounced a very high sanction, representing 7% of La Banque Postale's net annual result. The breach is constituted by the fact of not having prevented the use of the banking technique of the "money order" which was used to escape the freezing of the assets. The Conseil d'État recalls that by nature if the assets are frozen, it is not possible that anyone is able to dispose of these assets. However, by the use of "money orders", persons targeted by asset freezing decisions, tools used in connection with the fight against money laundering and the fight against terrorism, had been able to circulate money to from accounts managed by La Banque Postale, of which they were not customers. This case was not foreseen at the time when the Bank Postale was sanctioned by the ACPR for not having prevented such a use, the texts forcing it under its obligations of "conformity" to prevent this behavior of violation background gels on the part of his customers, but only that. This case of a use of a means by a person who is not a customer of the bank was not foreseen at the time when the alleged facts took place and the Bank claims not to be able to be punished since in the repressive matter it is necessary to respect the principle of non-retroactivity of the texts, – in this case texts later supplemented to aim at such an assumption -, the non-retroactivity being a major principle itself related to the principle of the legality of the offenses and the penalties. We are therefore in the hypothesis of a silence of the texts. What to decide? Can the Bank be condemned and so heavily or not by the ACPR? The Bank does not think so.  It acted against this sanction decision firstly because those who used these money orders were not its clients. It has strong reasons to avail itself of this fact, since subsequently the texts needed to be modified to aim not only the use of this technique of money order by those who have a count in the bank and also by those who act with cash through the bank without a count, that is to say without an account holder to look at. Because we are in criminal matters, the restrictive interpretation and non-retroactivity of the text should lead to follow the reasoning of the Bank. But the Conseil d'État does not because it considers that implicitly but necessarily even with this subsequent modification of the text, it had aimed that use before. By this way, the Conseil d'Étatuncil develops a very broad concept of the obligations of banks in their role in the fight against money laundering, and therefore a very repressive point of view, which permeates their "obligation of Compliance". Thus, when the bank also argues that it can not be sanctioned since for it this activity of money order is  deficit and that it did not cause harm to its customers even by assuming badly its obligations, theConseil d'État stresses that this is not a pertinent perspective since the Compliance obligations falls within the "overriding general interest of protection of public order and public security, to which the freezing of assets legislation responds". -   Read the  judgment of the Conseil d'État ( in French).