French Polynesia – CM P

Update BRP Country Manual Products

French Polynesia

Definitions & Concepts, Regulatory Overview and Behaviour Template

The Country Manual (CM) has been reviewed to ensure that the content of all the documents remain accurate and up to date.

Material changes

In alignment with the Country Manual Private Banking (CM PB), the provision of execution-only services and advisory services, as well as any marketing activities, are either not permitted or not recommended onshore in French Polynesia (at target). The County Manual Products Behaviour Template (CM P BT) therefore now provides the answers “NO” (for the active provision of personalised recommendation lists as well as advisory services) and “Grey zone/NO”.

Furthermore, the active provision of investment advice as well as any active marketing activities (both without/outside the scope of an ongoing advisory agreement) via remote means of communication into French Polynesia (remote) are not recommended/permitted and the CM P BT answers these scenarios with “NO” or “Grey zone/NO”.

Although – in principle – no distinction is made between investment advice based on a written advisory agreement and advice provided on an informal basis, it could be argued that the provision of investment advice strictly under the terms of an “ongoing advisory agreement” does not trigger the “local distribution rules” under very limited circumstances when:

The written advisory agreement has been requested by the investor; and The written advisory agreement is sufficiently detailed and covers investment recommendations for a specific type of financial product (e.g. hedge funds, venture capital funds, private equities and/or on investments in specific sectors and/or geographic regions, new technologies, real estates, emerging markets, etc.); and

The investor receives sufficient information to understand the characteristics and features of the relevant product as well as on the risks involved.

Based on the above, the CM P BT now provides for the relevant cross-border distribution scenarios the answers “Grey zone/YES” (for registered products/not registered products where a “private placement exemption” is available) and “Grey zone” (for not registered products where no “private placement exemption” is available).

Non-material changes

Some comments and content have been slightly rephrased in the CM, without introducing any substantive changes to better reflect the regulatory situation/current interpretation of the regulatory framework more accurately (e.g. it includes reference to the publication of the decision of the French Court de Cassation in November 2023 on the application of the Direct Marketing rules (Démarchage) to service providers from third countries and the EEA without a passport, who can now benefit from the Direct Marketing exemptions set out in Art. L341-2 of the MFC if they operate in French Polynesia on a limited basis or actively direct their services on a cross-border basis into French Polynesia.

For more information, please contact us: info@brpsa.com

Geneva, April 29^th, 2025