Amendment to Netherlands Securities Transactions (Supervision) Act

On February 1, 1999 an amendment to the Securities Transactions (Supervision) Act 1995 (Wet toezicht effectenverkeer 1995) came into effect. The related legislation based on this act, namely the Securities Transactions (Supervision) Decree 1995 (Besluit toezicht effectenverkeer 1995) and the Additional Regulations on the Supervision of Securities Transactions 1995 (Nadere Regeling toezicht effectenverkeer 1995), was also amended as a consequence of this. As a result, the existing arrangements between Amsterdam Exchanges NV and the Securities Board of the Netherlands (Stitcting Toezicht Effectenverkeer - STE) regarding the division of supervision are now laid down by law. These arrangements had been in force since 1 January 1997. As a result of these amendments a number of requirements laid down in Amsterdam Exchanges' Rules and Regulations have ceased to apply to seatholders which are subject to the above mentioned statutory regulations. These include requirements applying to seatholders with regard to expertise and reliability, financial guarantees, qualifying holdings, administrative organisation and internal control, the separation of funds and powers of disposal. These matters are now laid down in the amended legislation. However, Amsterdam Exchanges is still able to set additional requirements for its seatholders. Another important change relates to the admission procedure for new seatholders. Under the old procedure, the Securities Board of the Netherlands only issued a permit as referred to in the Securities Transactions (Supervision) Act to an applicant if the applicant had already been admitted as a seatholder by Amsterdam Exchanges. With effect from February 1, 1999, however, the procedure formally changed and Amsterdam Exchanges will now only process an application for admission as a seatholder if the Securities Board of the Netherlands has already granted the applicant a permit, insofar as such a permit is required. As from February 1, 1999, seatholders have had to contact the Securities Board of the Netherlands direct instead of Amsterdam Exchanges' Compliance Department to obtain a certificate of no objection in order to hold, acquire or increase a qualifying holding. A qualifying holding is a direct or indirect interest of more than 5% of a seatholder's issued share capital, or the ability to exercise directly or indirectly, more than 5% of the voting rights in a seatholder, or the ability to exercise, directly or indirectly, comparable control over a seatholder.