Opinion of the European Monetary Institute on a consultation from the Danish Ministry of Economic Affairs under Article 109f(6) of the Treaty establishing the European Community and Article 5.3 of the Statute of the EMI on a draft Law on Securities Trading (Bill No. L 250, Folketinget 1994-1995) (CON/95/9)
Date: 1995-07-31
Institutions: European Monetary Institute
Subjects: Denmark, European System of Central Banks, central bank, financial stability, financial statistics, financial supervision, insider trading, payment system, securities, stock exchange

OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN MONETARY INSTITUTE

on  a  consultation  from  the  Danish  Ministry  of  Economic  Affairs  under  Article  109f(6)  of  the  Treaty

establishing the European Community and Article 5.3 of the Statute of the EMI

on a draft Law on Securities Trading (Bill No. L 250, Folketinget 1994-1995)

CON/95/9

1.  On 9th June 1995 the Danish Ministry of Economic Affairs transmitted a request for consultation to

the  EMI  on  the  draft  Law  on  Securities  Trading  (the  “Bill”).  The  Ministry  also  submitted  a

summary of that Bill prepared by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, which was the author of the

Bill.

2.  The  Bill  aims  at  modernising  Danish  securities  legislation  in  a  comprehensive  way  through  the

establishment  of  an  overall  regulative  framework  for  securities  markets,  e.g.  regulation  and

supervision  of  security  market  institutions  and  market  behaviour  in  general,  including  inter  alia

provisions  on  insider  trading.  The  Bill  provides  at  the  same  time  for  the  implementation  of  the

Investment Services Directive (93/22/EEC).

3.  As the Bill, inter alia, contains provisions on the status and powers of Danmarks Nationalbank in the

area of securities trading, the collection of financial statistics, clearing and payment systems whilst it

also comprises a number of rules applicable to financial institutions which may influence the stability

of financial institutions and markets, the EMI is competent to deal with this request for consultation

under Article 1.1, indents 2, 3, 4 and 5, of Council Decision 93/717/EC.

As  the  Bill  contains  certain  provisions  implementing  Community  legislation  on  which  the  Danish

authorities  under  Article  2.2  of  the  above  Council  Decision  would  not  necessarily  have  to  consult

the  EMI,  this  opinion  therefore  takes  a  rather  restrictive  approach  in  the  assessment  of  the

provisions concerned.

4.  The  Bill  supports  the  smooth  functioning  of  the  financial  markets  and  more  in  particular  securities

trading in all its aspects and the EMI therefore welcomes the Bill. The Bill itself does not give rise

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to  any  specific  issues  which  would  need  to  be  mentioned  from  the  EMI’s  point  of  view.  The

attribution  of  tasks,  rights  and  obligations  to  Danmarks  Nationalbank  provided  for  in  the  Bill  is  not

incompatible with the requirements of the Treaty establishing the European Community. Article 14

(4) of the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank does

not  preclude  per  se  national  central  banks  from  performing  functions  other  than  those  specified  in

this Statute. In addition, those parts of the bill that relate to statistics, clearing and payment systems

and  the  stability  of  financial  institutions  and  markets,  which  are  of  particular  concern  to  the  EMI

with a view to its mandate, are elaborated in such a manner in the Bill that they do not need to be

further addressed in this opinion.

5. The EMI agrees that this opinion may be made public by the competent Danish authorities at their

discretion.

31st July 1995