Faq

A certificate of unavailability is a document intended for the BCEAO Refinancing Window. It is used in the case of pledging certain categories of public securities issued on the regional financial market, eligible for immobilization in favor of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO). This document is issued only to the approved financial institutions of the UEMOA.

Pledge is the assignment of an intangible movable property or a set of intangible movable assets, present or future, as collateral for one or more debts, whether present or future.

The pledge of a securities account is a form of real movable security that allows the beneficiary, typically a financial institution, to either claim payment from or be granted full ownership of the debtor's securities in the event of the debtor's default.

As an investor, if you wish to pledge your securities, you must submit a request to your account holder (SGI or BTCC) to ensure that all necessary actions are taken with the DC/BR.

A securities portfolio transfer from one account holder to another occurs upon the request of the beneficiary, based on a properly completed and signed request by the authorized ordering party, supported by all necessary documents. The account holder is responsible for sending the request to the DC/BR.

There are two categories of off-market transactions:
(i) transactions that were not concluded directly on the central market (the stock exchange) but through private agreements between multiple parties. Typically, this type of transaction is observed with securities issued through private placements and registered in the DC/BR books.
(ii) other types of transactions such as transfers of securities between members, pledge of portfolios, releases, etc.

An OST (Securities Transaction) refers to all events that occur in the life of a security: dividend payments, capital increases, stock splits, public offers for purchase or exchange, exercise of subscription rights and warrants, etc.

Investors must contact the DC/BR members, account-holding banks and custodians (BTCC), and SGIs to open securities accounts and deposit their certificates. After successfully depositing the paper certificate into the CSD System, investors will receive an electronic account statement showing their holdings for the deposited securities.

No. You must submit the certificate to the custodian or the financial service of the security. Indeed, if the issuer of the said security announces its membership with the Central Depository, all operations involving paper certificates become invalid.

The acronym "SGI" stands for Société de Gestion et d’Intermédiation (Management and Intermediation Company). It refers to a member of the DC/BR whose main activity is to carry out transactions on the stock market on behalf of its clients for a commission or for its own account.

SGIs are exclusively authorized to act as negotiators of listed securities on behalf of third parties. As such, they are authorized to receive and hold public funds in connection with this activity.

SGIs are also allowed to engage in related activities such as managing securities accounts and providing financial engineering advisory services.

An entity such as a government, a private company, or any agency (public or private) authorized by law to develop, register, and sell initial securities to investors or the general public in order to raise funds for investment purposes, with prior authorization from the AMF-UMOA in the case of public offerings.

The secondary market is the part of the securities market where securities that have already been issued in the primary market are traded.

The primary market, or market for issuances, is a place where newly created securities (such as shares and bonds) issued by companies seeking funds are offered for the first time. It is a "new market," as opposed to the secondary market, which is a market for second-hand securities.

A custodian account holder (TCC) is a member of the Central Depository, responsible for holding securities for its clients and for itself. The securities are dematerialized and recorded in each client's securities account, with the clients remaining the owners and deciding on their use (custody or sale).

Yes, membership in the DC/BR requires the opening of a minimum category of accounts depending on the type of member. If a DC/BR member intends to trade listed securities on the stock exchange or conduct off-market transactions on securities for its clients or on its own behalf, these transactions will be recorded in these accounts.

It is an electronic account that holds only the securities of its members.

The maximum settlement period for stock market transactions on the regional financial market is three (3) days.

A security is a category of financial instruments (financial securities) that can either be an equity security (share) or a debt security (bond). It grants standardized rights, such as entitlement to the same coupon or dividend, for a given issuance with the same characteristics.

These include either issuers of securities, management and intermediation companies (SGI), or account-holding custodian banks approved by the AMF-UMOA.

The oversight of the activities of the DC/BR is carried out by the Financial Markets Authority of WAEMU (AMF-UMOA).

• WAEMU Member States
• Management and Intermediation Companies (SGI)
• Sub-regional Financial Institutions
• Chamber of Commerce and Industry
• Various Private Entities

Central depositories ensure a safer, faster, and easier stock exchange trading of your securities. You do not need to wait for the issuance of physical certificates before being able to resell them, as your securities are electronically credited (via account registration) to your account three (3) business days (T+3) after the trading date.

The acronym "DC/BR" stands for Central Depository/Settlement Bank SA. The DC/BR is one of the central structures of the regional financial market. It was established as a public limited company in 1996. The DC/BR is approved by the Financial Markets Authority of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (AMF-UMOA), the regulator of the regional financial market. Upon its approval, it enjoys the status of a Specialized Financial Institution.

On behalf of its members, its main missions are:

• The custody and circulation of securities admitted to its operations.
• The management of the settlement-delivery cycle.
• The cash payment, in its capacity as Settlement Bank, of balances resulting from the clearing of stock market transactions.
• The settlement to SGIs of dividends, interest, and the repayment of securities held.

A central depository is an institution where securities held by financial intermediaries are recorded, either in their own name or on behalf of their clients. The central depository provides services such as the registration of securities at the time of issuance, their centralized custody, and their delivery against cash in financial market transactions. In the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) region, the central depository is called Dépositaire Central/Banque de Règlement SA.

The dematerialization of securities is the elimination of the physical representation of securities or the shareholder register of the company (issuer), replaced by an electronic record in the account, in the name of their owners, with the issuer or an account-holding custodian or a central depository.

The immobilization of securities is the action of making any transaction on the held securities impossible because they have been pledged as collateral or are subject to a temporary freeze.