Autorite des Marches Financiers, French Financial Markets Regulator, Approves Business Wire to Operate as a Regulatory Disclosure Service in France
Business Wire has been officially recognized by the Autorite des
Marches Financiers (AMF), the French financial markets regulator, as
an approved regulatory disclosure service in France, Michael Becker,
vice president, global disclosure and financial reporting services,
announced today.
The AMF today published its list of sanctioned information
providers, in advance of the January 20 launch of the European Union's
Transparency Obligations Directive (TOD).
Business Wire is the only global commercial newswire on the AMF
list; Business Wire maintains dedicated disclosure networks in all
major European financial markets, including France, the United Kingdom
and Germany.
"Business Wire's decision to operate its own disclosure networks
throughout the European Union, coupled with its comprehensive
worldwide media and investor relations networks, means that we are
uniquely positioned to offer seamless distribution to all target
audiences," said Becker. "Tremendous fragmentation exists among
competitive services in the 27 EU Member States. Business Wire has
clearly differentiated itself in the EU marketplace by providing an
efficient one-stop solution for European companies seeking to reach
global financial and consumer markets."
In addition to reaching designated disclosure media, Business
Wire's "Best Practices" network includes pan-European media
distribution via the networks of Agence France-Presse and The
Associated Press, full-text carriage by the leading financial
information providers, e.g. Bloomberg and Reuters, and online postings
to leading portals, including lefigaro.fr, lycos.fr and yahoo.fr.
Business Wire's patented "NX" news delivery platform provides for
the multilingual transmission of market-moving information to multiple
markets. Business Wire also provides multilingual distribution via a
range of new media applications, including RSS feeds, its own
proprietary PressPass system, and local-language postings to the
largest network of pan-European online sites in the industry.
As part of the AMF approval process, Business Wire successfully
completed a technical and operational audit by one of the world's
leading independent accounting firms. Business Wire undergoes a
similar annual audit in the United Kingdom, to comply with the rigid
requirements of Financial Services Authority (FSA), the UK markets
regulator.
About Business Wire
Business Wire, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is utilized by
thousands of member companies and organizations to transmit their
full-text news releases, regulatory filings, photos and other
multimedia content to journalists, news media, trade publications,
institutional and individual investors, financial
information services, regulatory authorities, Internet portals,
information web sites, business-to-business decision-makers and
consumers worldwide. With a news distribution network spanning 150
countries and 45 languages, Business Wire's multi-channel delivery
network, has access to some 60 international and national news agency
networks throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and
Africa.
The Business Wire news network is powered by its patented
NX high-speed data platform and supports XML, XHTML and XBRL code to
deliver the most sophisticated news file to enhance news release
interactivity, customization and search engine optimization. Business
Wire has 30 bureaus in cities including New York, San Francisco, Los
Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Miami, Paris, Frankfurt, London, Brussels,
Tokyo and Sydney with reciprocal offices throughout the world.
Business Wire was founded in 1961 by Chairman Lorry I. Lokey, veteran
journalist and public relations executive. Cathy Baron Tamraz is
president and CEO.