Last month, the Luxembourg parliament approved legislation that enables securities to be issued and managed using distributed ledger technology or blockchain. According to CMS Luxembourg the law:
- Modernizes the Luxembourg law of 6 April 2013 on dematerialized securities (the “2013 Law”) by inserting a definition of “issuance account” which expressly refers to the secured electronic registration mechanisms technology and environment.
- Adjusts the Luxembourg law of 5 April 1993 on the financial sector, as amended in opening the role of the central account holder with respect to unlisted debt securities to European Economic Area (“EEA”) investment firms and credit institutions.
CMS Luxembourg is the law firm that advised Euronext on its investment in digital asset issuance platform Tokeny Solutions.
The legislation is viewable here.
CMS describes the new law as a “significant landmark in the transformation of the Luxembourg financial services landscape.” Several EU member states have done the same or are in the process of enabling digital securities on blockchain technology.