site.btaAmended Law Requires Regulator to Pre-approve Central Securities Depositories' Managements

The management of a central securities depository will be approved by the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) before being recorded in the Commercial Register, Bulgaria's Parliament legislated on Thursday, passing conclusively amendments to the Markets in Financial Instruments Act.

The revisions update the powers of the FSC and transpose Regulation (EU) No 909/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 with regard to the qualifications of members of the management and supervisory bodies of central securities depositories and upon acquisition of a qualifying holding in such depositories.

Central securities depositors and investment firms will have six months from the entry into force of the amending law to bring their operations into conformity with its requirements, the MPs resolved. 

The members of the management and supervisory bodies of central securities depositories will also be subject to approval before being re-elected for a new term. In such case, a fee will be charged for their approval, according to the amended law. 

The revisions streamline the arrangements for suspension or restriction of trading in financial instruments.

An investment firm which is licensed, among other things, to organize a multilateral trading facility or an organized trading facility and does not trade for its own account must have initial capital of not less than the lev equivalent of EUR 150,000, Parliament ruled.