Subsection 3: Inspections and investigations

I.-In order to carry out its mission, the AMF conducts inspections and investigations.

It shall ensure that the following offers and transactions are lawful:

1° Transactions in financial instruments when they are offered to the public and in financial instruments, units referred to in Article L. 229-7 of the Environmental Code and assets referred to in II of Article L. 421-1 of this Code that are admitted to trading on a trading venue or for which an application for admission to trading on such a venue has been submitted;

2° Public offers of shares referred to in the fourth paragraph of Article L. 512-1 of this Code or inArticle 11 of Law No. 47-1775 of 10 September 1947 on the status of cooperatives and public offers of mutualist certificates referred to in the first paragraph of II of Article L. 322-26-8 of the Insurance Code provided that these offers to the public are not offers referred to in 1° of Article L. 411-2 or in 2° or 3° of Article L. 411-2-1 and offers of tokens referred to in Article L. 552-3 ;

3° Transactions carried out on commercial contracts relating to commodities, linked to one or more financial instruments or units referred to in Article L. 229-7 of the Environmental Code.

Markets in instruments created to represent banking transactions which, pursuant to Article L. 214-20 of this Code, may not be held by UCITS are not subject to AMF supervision.

II. - The Autorité des marchés financiers also ensures compliance with the professional obligations to which the following entities or persons and the natural persons placed under their authority or acting on their behalf are subject by virtue of legislative and regulatory provisions:

1° Investment services providers other than portfolio management companies authorised or operating freely in France, and legal persons under their authority or acting on their behalf;

2° Persons authorised to carry on the business of custody or administration of financial instruments as referred to in Article L. 542-1 ;

3° The central depositories referred to in 1° of I of Article L. 441-1;

4° Members of regulated markets who are not investment services providers;

5° Market undertakings;

6° Clearing houses for financial instruments;

7° The collective investment schemes referred to in I of Article L. 214-1 and the collective investment management companies referred to in Article L. 543-1;

7° bis Management companies established in another Member State of the European Union or party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area with a branch or providing services in France, which manage one or more UCITS authorised in accordance with Directive 2009/65/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 July 2009;

7° ter Management companies established in another Member State of the European Union or party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area or managers established in a third country with a branch or providing services in France, which manage one or more AIFs within the meaning of Directive 2011/61/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2011;

8° The intermediaries in various goods mentioned in Article L. 551-1 ;

9° Persons authorised to carry out canvassing as referred to in Articles L. 341-3 and L. 341-4;

10° Financial investment advisors;

10° bis Participative finance service providers, including in respect of their activities referred to in article L. 547-4;

11° Persons, other than those mentioned in 1° and 7°, producing and distributing financial analyses;

12° Custodians of collective investment schemes mentioned in I of Article L. 214-1;

13° The external valuation experts referred to in Article L. 214-24-15;

14° Legal entities administering institutions for collective occupational retirement mentioned in I of Article 8 of Order 2006-344 of 23 March 2006 or collective retirement savings plans mentioned in Articles L. 3334-1 to L. 3334-9 and L. 3334-11 to L. 3334-16 of the Labour Code;

15° The tied agents mentioned in article L. 545-1 ;

16° Branches approved in accordance with Article L. 532-48;

17° Approved professional associations mentioned in article L. 541-4;

18° Data communication service providers approved by the Autorité des marchés financiers;

19° Reference index administrators, including the legal representative located in France of an administrator located in a third country, supervised entities and any person involved in the provision of a reference index and contributing to its definition within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2016/1011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2016 on indices used as benchmarks for financial instruments and contracts or to measure the performance of investment funds and amending Directives 2008/48/EC and 2014/17/EU and Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 ;

20° The persons referred to in Articles 4 and 5 of Article 29 of Regulation (EU) 2017/2402 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2017 creating a general framework for securitisation and a specific framework for simple, transparent and standardised securitisations, and amending Directives 2009/65/ EC, 2009/138/ EC and 2011/61/ EU and Regulations (EC) No 1060/2009 and (EU) No 648/2012 ;

21° Service providers approved in accordance with Article L. 54-10-5 ;

22° Providers of pan-European individual retirement savings products referred to in Article L. 621-20-10.

The AMF shall ensure that these same entities or persons, as well as natural persons under their authority or acting on their behalf, comply with the provisions of the applicable European regulations.

In the case of persons or entities other than those providing the services referred to in Article L. 321-1 (4) or the persons or entities referred to in 7°, 7° bis, 7° ter, 8°, 10°, 10° bis and 11° of this II above, for which the Autorité des marchés financiers has sole jurisdiction, supervision shall be exercised subject to the powers of the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution and, in the case of those referred to in 3° and 6°, without prejudice to the powers conferred on the Banque de France by Article L. 141-4.

The Autorité des marchés financiers is also responsible for ensuring that the investment services providers referred to in Article L. 532-18-1 comply with the legislative and regulatory provisions applicable to them, under the conditions set out in Articles L. 532-18-2, L. 532-19 and L. 532-20-1-B.