site.btaParliament Revises Public Offering of Securities Act on First Reading

Bulgaria's National Assembly on Thursday voted, 133-33 with ten abstentions, to pass on first reading a Bill to Amend and Supplement the Public Offering of Securities Act.

According to the Budget and Finance Committee report, the draft legislation aims to transpose into Bulgarian legislation measures for the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2023/2631 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 November 2023 on European Green Bonds and optional disclosures for bonds marketed as environmentally sustainable and for sustainability-linked bonds. The Committee points out that compliance with these requirements is necessary so that issuers could use the designation "European Green Bonds". With regard to bonds that do not meet the "European Green Bonds" criteria but are marketed as environmentally sustainable or sustainability-linked bonds, the Regulation lays down rules on voluntary pre-issuance disclosures using a set template, the report says further.

The Financial Supervision Commission is designated as a competent authority responsible for supervising compliance with the requirements of the Regulation. The Bulgarian National Bank is designated as a competent authority responsible for compliance with the disclosure requirements of the Regulation.

The report says that with the framework of its review of the conformity of Bulgarian legislation with the Codes of Liberalisation, the Investment Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that third-country insurance brokers are subject to discriminatory treatment and that special-purpose investment company are unable to invest in immovable properties in the territory of countries that have acceded to the OECD Code of Liberalisation of Capital Movements. To this end, the bill proposes amendments to the Insurance Code and to the Special Purpose Vehicles and Securitisation Vehicles Act.