Preliminary draft Convention on the Law Applicable to Certain Rights in Respect of Securities Held with an Intermediary

The EFMLG has paid great attention to transactions in securities since the group's inception in June 1999. There have since then been a number of significant, and highly welcome, legislative developments affecting transactions in securities across the EU. With the further progression of the proposed Hague Convention on the Law Applicable to Certain Rights in respect of Securities held with an Intermediary, following the successful collaboration between the public and private sectors at a special Commission meeting in The Hague in January this year, and in the light of the forthcoming adoption (the EFMLG hopes) of the proposed EU Collateral Directive during this period of the Spanish Presidency, the EFMLG wishes to point out that it strongly supports the initiative of the Hague Convention and was grateful to be invited to send representative observers to the Special Commission meeting held in The Hague in January. At its February 2002 meeting, the EFMLG agreed that it might be helpful to the further progress of the Convention to take up the invitation of the Secretariat of the Permanent Bureau to submit comments and queries to the Secretariat by March 11th in advance of the March meeting of the Drafting Committee in Frankfurt. In this letter we set out three key questions that were highlighted in the group's discussion and on which it was felt that it might be helpful to seek clarification. These issues are raised in the context of Preliminary Document 8 of the Special Commission.