Argentine Securities Commission Adopts New Restrictions for Blue-Chip Swap Transactions

By means of General Resolution No. 962, issued on May 23, 2023, the Argentine Securities Commission (CNV) implemented new restrictions applicable to certain securities transactions settled in foreign currency to the extent that the clients have sold in the previous 15 days –or intend to sell in the upcoming 15 days– bonds issued by the Argentine Republic nominated and payable in USD in the segment of concurrency of offers with price-time priority (PPT Segment), save for the proprietary trading transactions.

Relating to the limits applicable to proprietary trading set forth by General Resolution No. 959 –find more information on it here – the Resolution No. 962 added that the assessment of such restrictions should be accounted for according to their settlement term.

Further, regarding the accounts not reached by the qualification of “proprietary trading accounts” (as defined in article 6, Chapter V, Title VI of the CNV Regulations), the Resolution established that, as long as the clients provide an affidavit stating that they have not executed in the PPT Segment any sale of bonds issued by Argentine Republic, nominated and payable in USD in the previous 15 days, and will not sell them for the following 15 days, broker-dealers and placement agents may execute the following transactions:

• Purchase or sale securities settled in foreign currency, save for bonds issued by the Argentine Republic traded through the PPT Segment.
• Purchase or sale bonds issued by the Argentine Republic traded through the segment of bilateral negotiation (SENEBI).
• Transfer of securities from or to a foreign depositary.

This restriction applies to each investment account and to the aggregate investment accounts for which the client is the principal owner or co-owner.

Finally, the Resolution states that the conversion between ordinary shares and Argentine Certificates of Deposit or American Depositary Receipts, regardless of the direction of the conversion, will be considered transfers of securities from or to a foreign depositary.