Intermediated Securities – The Geneva Securities Convention, the European Securities Law Directive and their Impact on Securities Laws of Selected European Jurisdictions

Organised by Pierre-Henri Conac, Luc Thévenoz and Ulrich Segna
In recent years, several initiatives have been started both on the European and the
international level to reduce the legal risks inherent in the cross-border settlement of securities transactions by harmonising the national frameworks for intermediated securities.
On 9 October 2009, a Diplomatic Conference held in Geneva adopted the “UNIDROIT Convention on Substantive Rules for Intermediated Securities”. The European Commission is currently preparing a draft “Directive on legal certainty of securities holding and transactions (Securities Law Directive – SLD)”, which is expected to cover both substantive law and conflicts of laws. In the first part of the conference, the Geneva Securities Convention and the draft Securities Law Directive will be analysed and compared. The second part will deal with the impact of these initiatives on the securities laws of selected European jurisdictions.
This conference is jointly organised by the Centre for Banking and Financial Law of the University of Geneva and by the Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance of the University of Luxembourg.