With effect from 1 January 2015 the VPS Business Terms were replaced with a new set of rules and agreements referred to as “VPS Rules for Registration of Financial Instruments” or the “VPS Rules” and the “General Terms and Conditions for Account Operators for VPS” or the “General Terms and Conditions”.
The VPS Rules have been approved by the FSA (Finanstilsynet) and contain rules pursuant to the Securities Register Act. The VPS Rules specify, i.a. the conditions to operate as an account operator for VPS, important procedures that account operators must follow and rules relating to liability and indemnity in connection with the securities register activity.
The General Terms and Conditions contain rules concerning duties and responsibilities both for VPS and the account operators. On many occasions, provisions and principles of the Business Terms have been continued, albeit in a modified language and in many cases with greater detail than in the Business Terms. Much of the detailing is a codification of current practice.
After 1 January 2015 VPS has also published updated versions of both the VPS Rules and the General Terms and Conditions. Focus for the updated versions has been to make conceptual harmonization between the documents. English versions of the VPS Rules and the General Terms and Conditions have also been published. And with effect from 1 February, after prior consultation with the account operators and their organisations, new provisions on payment orders took effect. The rules on payment orders appear in the General Terms and Conditions Part E.
In addition to the above changes, changes to the VPO regulations came into force with effect from 29 April 2015. Many of the changes are of linguistic nature, as a result of the VPS Rules and the General Terms and Conditions entered into force from 1 January this year. But there has also been made material changes. The changes have therefore been subject to consultation. Material changes, such as the definition of the term “settlement agent” has been implemented to clarify that transactions reported under an entity’s authorisation as settlement agent exclusively refers to settlement of its clients’ trades. In connection with the definition of “Commencement of the Settlement” we have added a reference to www.vps.no where the time of commencement of the settlement can be found.
The official name of the VPO regulations has been changed to “VPO NOK Rules” with the subtitle “Rules for the Central Securities Settlement in Norwegian kroner”.