The section has the main responsibility for the work related to public legal framework, including submitting comments on consultations, as well as initiate changes to existing legislation as seen fit. In recent years, we have seen considerable activity both nationally and internationally to regulate the post-trade activities as well as other areas influencing VPS’ customers.
A part of the section’s responsibility is to monitor developments in this area, and ensure that the other sections of VPS, its Executive Management group and Board of Directors are informed of relevant changes and current initiatives.
VPS Legal and Compliance consists of four persons
All the employees are working across all sections of VPS, with a strong focus on sharing competence within the section, particularly to avoid risk related to “single point of knowledge”. Odd Langaas has worked with VPS for 29 years. He has previous experience as a lawyer and as an assistant judge, and from the Royal Ministry of Justice. Claus W. Koren joined VPS in 2008. Before that, he worked with the surveillance unit ESA of EFTA, Konkurransetilsynet (the Norwegian Competition Authority) and as a lawyer. Lars-Erik Oppi started his career in VPS in 2011 and was previously a lawyer with M&A as area of expertise, as well as corporate and securities law. The section is headed by Jorunn Blindheim Øystese, Chief Legal Affairs Officer, who is also Compliance Officer and part of the VPS Executive Management group. Her previous experience has been acquired at the Financial Market Section of the Royal Ministry of Finance.
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| Jorunn | Odd | Claus | Lars-Erik | |||
Compliance
In 2012, VPS established a compliance function responsible for controlling and reporting to the Board of Directors on the company’s compliance with laws, regulations, licensing requirements, as well as the most important internal rules and decisions. New legislation implementing CSDR in Norwegian law (see below) will oblige companies licensed under CSDR to have a dedicated compliance officer. At present, VPS is not legally obliged to keep this function. Nevertheless, VPS found establishing it suitable. The head of the Legal Section is also the VPS Compliance Officer.
Details on the new regulation for CSDs and settlement activities
Based on the new EU regulation for CSDs and settlement activities (CSDR) *), a working group managed by Finanstilsynet (the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway) has been established to discuss and propose rules implementing the forthcoming EEA rules corresponding to CSDR in Norwegian law. VPS is participating in this group together with representatives from Finanstilsynet, the Royal Ministry of Finance, Finans Norge (Finance Norway), Norges Bank (the Central Bank of Norway), the Royal Ministry of Fisheries and Trade, and VPFF (Norwegian Securities Dealers Association).
The mandate for the abovementioned group includes, in addition to implementing CSDR in Norwegian law, discussing how the existing Norwegian regulation of legal title and how the rules of access to information can be continued as CSDR is implemented in Norwegian law. The group will also review the Norwegian corporate law in order to identify which rules must be complied with to enable foreign CSDs to offer services to Norwegian issuers, cf. CDSR Article 49. In addition to the questions related to CSDR implementation, the group will discuss and propose legal provisions with respect to issuers’ access to beneficial owner details for bonds, including a right to receive such information from their custodians on a consecutive basis. The group has a deadline of 1 November 2016 to submit a report to the Royal Ministry of Finance on these issues. Thereafter, the Ministry is expected to publish a consultation regarding the legislative proposal.
CSDR is expected to be implemented in Norwegian Law during 2017, with a legislative enactment at the end of the year. Under the new regulation, VPS will need to apply for a new authorisation from the Norwegian authorities, with an anticipated deadline at the beginning of 2018.