Chambers and Partners published recently its Practice Guide Securitisation 2019. Mayer Brown’s German securitization lawyers were pleased to contribute the Germany chapter.
Asset based finance and in particular securitisations are an important tool to provide funding to the economy and regulatory risk transfer to financial institutions. The Germany chapter of Chambers and Partners’ Practice
The past week in Germany has attracted and increased raised interest in blockchain based transactions.
Last week, three announcements brought further attention to the use of blockchain technology for capital market transactions in Germany. Initially, banks focused on the digitalisation of German Schuldschein loan issuances and OTC derivatives. Last week a very first ABCP issuance (see press release) and a plain money market issuance (see press release) via blockchain were published. However, both transactions are not governed by German law (but by Irish and Luxembourg law). In addition, the German regulator BaFin approved a securities prospectus for a public offer to retail investors of a subordinated uncertificated note issuance by a fintech company located in Berlin that is referenced by a token. This decision of BaFin appears to mark a new development in terms of the interpretation of the long established definition of a “security” under the European Prospectus Directive (and the respective definition under MIFID). Even though this definition is a regulatory based term and must therefore not fully be in line with German civil law, there remains a linkage to German civil law in particular when it comes to the question on whether or not the specific debt receivable/instrument is tradable and fungible.
Continue Reading Raising interest in blockchain based transactions in Germany