Guarantee for the services provided by asset management companies

A legal obligation to join the asset management company services guarantee scheme

Pursuant to Article L. Article 322-5 of the Monetary and Financial Code, resulting from the transposition of Articles 12 2) (b) of Directives 2009/65/EU (UCITS) and 2011/61/EU (AIFMs), certain asset management companies (AMCs) must join the asset management company services guarantee scheme.

This guarantee scheme allows eligible investors to be compensated in the event that their securities or cash are not available. It is separate from the securities guarantee scheme of which investment services providers (ISPs), other than AMCs, are members, and is managed and administered by the Fonds de Garantie des Dépôts et de Résolution (FGDR).

Which AMCs are members of this guarantee scheme?

The AMCs concerned are French AMCs:

• that are authorised to provide one or more investment services (reception and transmission of orders on behalf of third parties, third-party portfolio management, including where such management is delegated to a third party, and investment advice); and/or
• that register on account in nominative form (direct or administered), the UCI units or shares that they manage either directly or through a third party delegated by the AMC.

These AMCs are automatically members of the guarantee scheme since the publication of the order of 5 August 2022. The AMF draws up the list of member AMCs on the basis of the information at its disposal, namely the AMC authorisation grid for investment services and AMCs’ latest annual disclosure sheet responses on the activity of nominative registration on account of units or shares in the UCIs they manage.

What is the scope of the guarantee?

In accordance with the order of 5 August 2022, the asset management company services guarantee scheme provides for the compensation of investors, with the exception of those institutional investors listed in Section II of Article L. Article 312-4-1 of the Monetary and Financial Code, where a member AMC, in the course of its activities to provide investment services or the nominal registration on account of units or shares of managed UCIs, is unable, for reasons relating to its financial situation (default), to return or reimburse these:

• financial instruments or cash held by the AMC on behalf of the investor in breach of the legal prohibition on AMCs from receiving deposits of funds or securities from their clients (fraud);
• units or shares in managed UCIs registered on account by the AMC in nominative form and that the AMC is unable to return due to reasons of fraud or in the event of an anomaly in the nominal register; or
• financial instruments managed by the AMC on behalf of the investor under an individual management mandate, which the AMC is unable to return for reasons of fraud (because it has misappropriated the securities held by the custodian-account keeper, for example).

This applies to all eligible investors, regardless of their nationality or domicile. 

How does the compensation scheme work?

The guarantee is called on at the request of the AMF to the FGDR when the AMF notes that a member AMC is no longer able to return or reimburse the financial instruments or cash covered by the guarantee, either immediately or in the short term, due to the AMC being in a situation of default.

An AMC that has been found by the AMF to be unable to return or reimburse funds must then provide the FGDR with all the information necessary to calculate the compensation payments. The content, procedures and timescales for submitting this information are set by the FGDR.

On the basis of the information provided, the FGDR will initiate compensation for the unavailable financial instruments or cash within three months of the date on which the AMF notes that they cannot be returned or reimbursed. This deadline may be extended in exceptional circumstances.

Compensation is capped at €20,000 per eligible investor. The cap applies to the aggregate sum of the financial instruments and cash covered by the guarantee and belonging to the investor which the AMC is unable to return or reimburse to them, regardless of the number of contractual relationships the investor has with the AMC.

Ongoing obligation for member AMCs to provide information

Member AMCs must provide investors, and any other person who so requests, with any relevant information about the asset management company services guarantee scheme. The content of this information is set out in the order of 5 August 2022. This information may be published on the AMC’s website.

The resources used to fund the reserve and the operation of the guarantee scheme

Under the law, the member AMCs of the asset management company services guarantee scheme contribute to the FGDR by providing it with the financial resources necessary for it to fulfil its remit.

Consequently, since 2025, member AMCs have had to pay an annual contribution to the FGDR, comprised of:

• a contribution enabling the creation of a reserve from which guarantee calls can be drawn, thereby enabling investors to be compensated;
• a charge covering the share of the FGDR’s operating costs relating to the asset management company services guarantee.

The total amounts of this contribution and charge are determined annually by the FGDR. The AMF then calculates how much each member AMC should pay in accordance with the calculation methods set out in AMF decision No. 1000 of 4 July 2025, published in the Official Journal of the French Republic, and on the basis of the information transmitted by the AMCs to the AMF in their annual disclosure sheets, the quality of which is of paramount importance for the calculation.

The AMF notifies each member AMC of the individual amounts due to the FGDR (or, for the contribution, to be reimbursed to the member AMC by the FGDR) resulting from these calculations, together with a breakdown of the calculation.

As a final step, the FGDR sends a collection letter to its member AMCs setting out the practical arrangements for payment and the payment due date. The FGDR prefers a direct debit mandate signed in advance.

In addition to the contributions that member AMCs pay annually to the FGDR, in accordance with the law, the asset management company services guarantee scheme reserve is also funded by the fines imposed by the AMF’s Enforcement Committee on FGDR member AMCs.