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Legal alert no. 22

The Directive (EU) 2015/849 of The European Parliament and of the Council, of 20th May 2015, establishes in its article 10, no. 2, that “Member-States shall take measures to prevent misuse of bearer shares (…)”.

In the context of the transposition of the aforementioned directive into national law, Draft Bill No. 205/XIII, which bans the issuance of bearer shares, establishes a transitional regime aiming to the conversion of the existing bearer shares to a registered form, amending the Portuguese Securities Code and the Companies Code, was received by the Portuguese Parliament on 29th April 2016 and was approved in a Plenary Session of the Portuguese Parliament by final overall vote on 10th March.

The final draft of the document was already concluded by the Commission on Budget, Finances and Administrative Modernization, having the Decree No. 72/XIII been published in the Portuguese Parliament Gazette on 28th March.

At this stage of the legislative procedure, the Decree must be sent for Presidential assent, in which case the bill is submitted to Ministerial countersignature and afterwards published in the Official Gazette of the Portuguese Republic.

To access the complete text of the Decree No. 72/XIII, please click here.

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