FMA Financial Market Authority : enables the fully electronic approval of securities prospectuses with immediate effect

Since the start of the new year, it has been possible for the FMA to approve securities prospectuses electronically. All documents, such as the application for approval, the finalised prospectus or a supplement to the prospectus are to be submitted through the FMA's prospectus approval portal. To do so, issuers or their representative are required to register. Consequently, the physical signing, printing and binding of the prospectus as well as any supplements are in the future equally unnecessary at the requirement to make the submission in person to the FMA. The approved prospectuses as well as the approved supplements are stamped with an official signature by the FMA, thereby making it easy for investors to recognise whether the prospectus or supplement has been checked for completeness, coherence and comprehensibility. The process is further simplified for issuers in that the approved prospectus and approved supplements are submitted by the FMA to the Oesterreichische Kontrollbank. This has hitherto been done by the issuers themselves.

Mr. Tiemon Kiesenhofer, MBA

+43/(0)1/24959-6010

+43/(0)676/882 49 610