The College of the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) on Friday requested a penalty of 500,000 euros against the national association of financial advisors (Anacofi) for several breaches, including inadequacies in controls and membership procedures.
Anacofi is one of the four French associations representing financial investment advisors (CIF) approved by the AMF and to which it has been delegated the missions of training, control and sanction of professionals in the sector.
Conflicts of interest
Four grievances, described as "serious", were retained by the representative of the AMF Board: shortcomings in the evaluation of applications for membership of the association, shortcomings in the procedures for monitoring and sanctioning active members, failures in the identification of conflicts of interest and a lack of cooperation during the AMF investigation.
These accusations were deemed attributable to Patrick Galtier, president of Anacofi in 2021, at the time of the facts alleged by the AMF, and a fine of 40,000 euros was proposed against him. Mr. Galtier and the association could also receive a reprimand.
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An association of professionals is not a mailbox, nor a registration chamber, "said the representative of the AMF, during a hearing of the sanctions commission, recalling the "primordial" role of associations like Anacofi, "in the front line of the model of control of CIFs" erected by the AMF.
Anacofi refutes the first two alleged grievances and ensures that its "accession procedure is not defective". Anacofi's lawyers also pointed out that the AMF has no legal basis to sanction alleged shortcomings in control procedures.
Regarding the last two grievances, Anacofi did not seem to have documents of inventory of conflicts of interest ready during the AMF investigation, according to its rapporteur, and took several weeks to transmit to the investigators other documents. The Sanctions Committee will make its decision within a few weeks.