The Office of the Ombudsman of the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF) has published its annual report for 2023, highlighting an increase in the number of cases in the areas of real estate investment companies, crowdfunding and cryptoassets compared to the previous year.

AMF Ombudsman Marielle Cohen-Branche reported that the agency took on 1,922 cases, compared to 1,900 in 2022. The report shows that there has been a significant drop in the number of admissible cases, which has led to fewer solutions being proposed by the Ombudsman. Nonetheless, the team managed to process and close a large number of cases, reducing the backlog by almost 40%.

Sharp increase in cryptocurrency cases

Notably, the number of admissible cases reported was 1,129, compared to 1,341 in 2022. 2,060 cases were processed and closed, down from 2,089 in 2022. This resulted in 826 settlements being offered, a decrease of 18%.

Equity Savings Plans, which accounted for 25% of total referrals, continue to be a major source of disputes. The majority of issues were due to delays in transferring plans between agencies. One notable case involved non-compliance with tax requirements arising from multiple transfers.

While employee savings plans are no longer a major concern, they still account for 18% of complaints, with early release being the main complaint. Meanwhile, disputes related to stock market orders have declined significantly, a change attributed to fewer new investors and less trading in securities.

In 2023, the economic environment led to a sharp increase in disputes related to real estate investment companies (SCPI) and crowdfunding. sCPI disputes doubled to 86 cases, primarily involving delayed redemption requests and unit depreciation. The number of real estate crowdfunding cases also jumped 110%, so it is important to distinguish between market downturn issues and platform-specific failures.

Stablecoin Issues

In contrast, the turmoil in the crypto-asset market and the increase in registered DASPs led to a sharp rise in crypto-related complaints in 2022. The number of disputes jumped to 54, of which 17 were deemed admissible. Issues included problems with stablecoins and the use of “reverse solicitation” by certain market participants to avoid AMF registration.

Last year, 54% of the Ombudsman's recommendations were in favor of the applicants, with a 95% compliance rate. Of the cases closed, 202 recommendations led to financial proposals, with total compensation amounting to €864,519.

Individual stock savings plans were the main cause of disputes, accounting for a large proportion of complaints. Most of the issues revolved around delays in transferring individual stock plans between institutions. This recurring problem prompted the AMF Board to set up a working group to find practical solutions.