Key Benefits:
President of the Republic,
On the report of the Prime Minister and the Minister for Foreign Affairs,
Considering the Constitution, in particular articles 52 to 55;
Vu le Decree No. 53-192 of 14 March 1953 amended on the ratification and publication of international commitments undertaken by France,
Decrete:
The loan agreement between the Government of the French Republic and the International Monetary Fund, signed in Tokyo on 12 October 2012, will be published in the Official Journal of the French Republic.
The Prime Minister and the Minister for Foreign Affairs are responsible for the execution of this Order, which will be published in the Official Journal of the French Republic.
A C C O R D
DE PRÊT ENTRE LE GUVERNEMENT DE LA RÉPUBLIQUE
FRANÇAISE ET LE FONDS MONÉTAIRE INTERNATIONAL
1. Objectives and amounts.
(a) In order to increase the financial resources made available to the International Monetary Fund (the "Fund") for the prevention and resolution of crises through new bilateral borrowing agreements (the "Budget Agreements 2012"), France agrees to lend to the Fund an amount denominated in SDRs equivalent to not more than €31.4 billion under the conditions defined below.
(b) This Agreement shall be concluded on the basis of Article VII, Section 1 (i) of the Regulations of the Fund, under which the Fund is authorized to borrow from its Member States or other sources if it considers it useful to reconstitute its assets in the currency of a Member State held in the General Resources Account ("GIF"). In addition, this Agreement should be considered in the light of the IMF's borrowing guidelines (the "borrowing guidelines"), which clearly indicate that the subscription of assessed contributions is and should remain the main source of funding for the Fund and that the use of the loan is intended to temporarily complement the resources made by the assessed contributions.
2. Duration of the Agreement and use of resources.
(a) Subject to the provisions of paragraph (d) below, this Agreement shall be concluded for a period of two years from the date of entry into force, pursuant to paragraph 16 (b).
(b) As soon as the Director General of the Fund has notified to the Board of Directors and to France that the threshold set out in the Directives on Borrowing (the "Activation threshold") for the Changed Fund Capacity Indicator ("CFIA"), as defined below, is met, and as long as the Arrangements for Borrowing 2012 are in force pursuance of paragraph 4 of the Directives on Borrowing, the Fund may (i) subject, however, that the commitments under this item (ii) also include any undertaking that has resulted in the approval of the activation threshold. For the purposes of this Agreement, "modified ICF" means the ICF of the Fund as defined in Decision No. 14906-(11/38), adopted on 20 April 2011, but adjusted to take into account all available and unspent resources under new borrowing agreements ("AEN").
Following the notification referred to in paragraph (b), the available resources (c) under this Agreement may also be used by the Fund to fund the advance refund of claims arising from other 2012 Borrowing Agreements if the creditors concerned under these Agreements request this advance refund in the circumstances specified in paragraph 9. Drawings may be made under this Agreement to finance this advance refund, as long as receivables resulting from borrowing agreements 2012 are not extinguished, including after the expiry of this Agreement and for any period during which this Agreement is no longer in force under paragraph 4 of the Borrowing Guidelines.
(d) The Fund may extend the duration of this Agreement to a maximum of two additional one-year periods for a total period of four years. Each extension implies that the Board of Directors has previously decided to extend the 2012 borrowing agreements for a period of one year, taking into account the liquidity situation of the Fund and its current and predictable borrowing needs. In addition, the first extension can only be decided after consultation with France, while the second extension can only be made with the consent of France.
(e) The drawings under this Agreement shall be made with a view to achieving, in the long term, comprehensively balanced positions between creditors under the 2012 Agreements in relation to their commitments under these Agreements.
(f) The Fund shall not conduct a draw under this Agreement if the draw leads to the fact that the current drawings under this Agreement exceed 31.4 billion euros on the date of the draw, as calculated in accordance with the terms of paragraph 11 (b).
3. Estimates, notifications and draw limits.
(a) Prior to the commencement of each period for the use of bilaterally borrowed resources, the Fund provides France with the most accurate estimates of the amounts it intends to draw under this Agreement during the following period and provides revised estimates during each period if warranted.
(b) The Fund shall give France a notice of at least five working days, within the meaning of the legislation in force in Paris, of its intention to draw and provide payment instructions at least two working days, within the meaning of the legislation in force in the Fund, before the date of value of the transaction, by means of rapid communication and with an authentication function such as SWIFT, subject to a minimum
4. Debt recognition.
(a) The current draws under this Agreement are contained in the statements of the situation of France vis-à-vis the IMF published monthly by the latter.
(b) At the request of France, the Fund provides the Fund with non-negotiable instruments as a debt recognition of the Fund to France under this Agreement. When the amount of any instrument issued under this paragraph and interest accrued, the instrument shall be returned to the Cancellation Fund. If an amount less than that of the instrument is refunded, the instrument is returned to the Fund and is replaced by a new instrument relating to the balance and bearing the same maturity date as the previous instrument.
5. Cheers.
(a) Unless otherwise provided for in paragraph 5 or paragraph 9 below, each draw under this Agreement shall have a maturity of three months from the date of draw. The Fund may, at its sole discretion, choose to extend the maturity of all or part of a draw by additional periods of three months following the original maturity, an extension that the Fund is deemed to have automatically chosen according to the maturity of all current draws, unless at least five working days, within the meaning of the legislation in force in the Fund, before a maturity, the Fund shall not report to France, by a means of rapid communication provided, however, that (i) the expiration of any draw to finance purchases from the GAF shall not be deferred to a later date on the tenth anniversary of the date of the draw and that (ii) the maturity of all draws to finance early repayments of receivables from other creditors under paragraph 2 (c) is the closest of the following two dates: a single common maturity corresponding to the maximum anticipated repayment period Notwithstanding the due dates of the previous sentence, if the Board of Directors finds that there are exceptional circumstances resulting from an insufficiency of the Fund's resources in relation to its obligations to echo, the Fund may, with the agreement of France, extend for a period of not more than five years the maximum deadline for the drawings under this Agreement.
(b) The Fund shall reimburse all or part of the principal of each draw on the due date applicable to all or part of that draw in accordance with paragraph (a) above.
(c) After consultation with France, the Fund may make an advance refund of all or part of the principal of any draw prior to its due date as defined in paragraph (a) above, provided that the Fund gives France a notice of at least five working days, according to the legislation in force to the Fund, prior to this reimbursement, by means of rapid communication and with an authentication function such as SWIFT.
(d) Reimbursement of prints allows pro tanto to restore the amount that may be drawn under this Agreement. The extension of the expiry of any or part of a draw pursuant to paragraph (a) above shall not diminish the amount that may be drawn under this Agreement.
(e) If the due date of a draw does not correspond to a working day at the place where the payment is to take place, the date of payment of the principal of that draw shall then be the next working day. In this case, interest accumulates up to the date of payment.
6. Interest rate.
(a) Each draw bears interest according to the SDR rate established by the Fund under Article XX, Section 3 of the Fund's Regulations; However, if the Fund pays interest at a rate higher than the SDR rate on any other borrowing under comparable conditions granted under Article VII, Section 1 (i) of the Fund's Regulations, and as long as the payment of interest subject to that higher rate continues, the interest rate applicable to draws made under this Agreement is equivalent to the interest rate paid by the Fund on that other comparable loan.
(b) The amount of interest due on each draw is calculated on the basis of the amount of the outstanding draw. Interests accumulate daily and are paid without delay by the Fund as of 31 July, 31 October, 31 January and 30 April.
7. Libelled, ways and means of drawings and payments.
(a) The amount of each draw and refund under this Agreement shall be in SDR.
(b) Unless otherwise agreed between the Fund and France, the amount of each draw shall be paid by the latter, at the date of value specified in the notice of the Fund referred to in paragraph 3, in the form of a transfer to the account of the Fund open to the depositary designated by France of the equivalent in euros of the value in the DTS of the draw, provided that for the drawings referred to in paragraph 2 (c), France shall ensure that the balances drawn from the Fund
(c) The obligations of France under Article V, Section 3 (e) and Article V, Section 7 (j) of the Fund's Regulations in respect of the exchange of currencies purchased or to be used for the redemptions of the Fund shall apply, respectively, to the purchase and redemption transactions of the General Resources Account involving the currency used for the drawings and to be used for the reimbursements of the principal under this Agreement.
(d) Subject to the provisions of paragraph 9 below, refunds of the principal shall be made, as decided by the Fund, in the currency of the loan where possible, in euros, in special drawing rights (subject to the fact that this does not increase the assets in special drawing rights held by France beyond the limit set out in Article XIX, section 4 of the Statutes of the Fund, unless France consents to
(e) Payment by the Interest Fund due under this Agreement shall normally be made in SDRs; However, the Fund and France may agree that the payment of interest takes place in euros.
(f) All payments made by the Fund in euros are made by a transfer to an account specified by France or by debiting the account of the Fund open to the depositary designated by France, as decided by the Fund. SDR payments are made by crediting France's account to the Special Drawing Rights Department. Payments in another currency are made on an account specified by France.
8. Stop the prints at the request of France.
The commitment of France to honour the draws provided for in this Agreement shall end the request of the latter if (i) it declares that the position of its balance of payments and its reserves does not permit any additional draws, and if (ii) the Fund, having granted this declaration the full benefit of doubt, decides that no additional draws should be made against the position of the balance of payments and reserves of France.
9. Advance refund at the request of France.
At its request, France obtains the advance refund to the nominal value of all or part of the current draws under this Agreement if (i) it declares that the position of its balance of payments and its reserves justifies this refund and that (ii) the Fund, having granted this declaration the full benefit of the doubt, decides that it is necessary to make the advance refund requested by France in respect of the position of the balance of payments and reserves of France. After consultation with France, the Fund may make repayments under this paragraph 9 either in SDRs or in a currency freely usable, as decided by the Fund or, with the agreement of France, in currencies of other Member States included in the Fund's quarterly financial transactions programme for the purpose of transfers.
10. Cession.
(a) With the exception of the cases referred to in subparagraphs (b) to (h) below, France shall not assign its obligations under this Agreement or any debt to the Fund related to the outstanding draws, unless it has previously obtained the agreement of the Fund and subject to the general terms and conditions approved by the Fund.
(b) France is entitled to assign at any time any or all of a debt to the Fund resulting from an ongoing draw under this Agreement, either to any Member State of the Fund or to the Central Bank or any other financial organization designated by any Member State for the purposes of Article V, Section 1, of the Statutes of the Fund ("other financial organization"), or to any other official entity authorized as holder of Article XVII,
(c) The assignment implies that the assignee of the receivable assigned under paragraph (b) above shall, as a condition of assignment, assume the responsibility of France in accordance with paragraph 5 (a) above with respect to the extension of the expiry of the drawings related to the assigned receivable and in respect of the extension of the maximum maturity of the drawings under this Agreement in exceptional circumstances. More generally, any receivable granted under paragraph (b) shall be held by the assignee under the same general conditions governing his detention by France; However: (i) the assignee has the right to require an advance refund under paragraph 9 only if it is either a Member State, either the Central Bank or another financial body of a Member State and if the Fund considers that, at the date of assignment, the position of the balance of payments and reserves of the Member State is strong enough for its currency to be used for transfers made under the financial transactions programme; (ii) if the assignee is either a Member State, either the Central Bank or another financial body of a Member State, the reference to the euro in paragraph 7 shall be deemed to designate either the currency of the Member State concerned, or a freely usable currency chosen by the Fund; (iii) payments for the receivable are paid on the account designated by the assignee; (iv) the term "worked days within the meaning of the legislation in force in Paris" is deemed to designate the working days of the place where the assignee is located.
(d) The price of a receivable transferred under paragraph (b) agreed between France and the assignee.
(e) France shall promptly notify the Fund of the assignment of a receivable under paragraph (b) by specifying the name of the assignee, the amount of the receivable concerned, the sale price and the value date of the transaction.
(f) The Fund shall register an assignment that is notified to it in accordance with paragraph (e) if it meets the general conditions set out in this paragraph 10. The assignment takes effect on the agreed value date between France and the assignee.
(g) If a receivable is disposed of for all or part in a quarter as defined in paragraph 6 (b), the Fund shall pay to the assignee interest calculated on the basis of the amount of the assigned receivable for the entire quarter.
(h) If necessary, the Fund provides its assistance in facilitating transfers.
11. Actual exchange rate.
(a) Unless otherwise agreed between France and the Fund, the draws, exchanges and payments of the principal and interest made under this Agreement shall be applied the exchange rates in SDRs in accordance with the provisions of Article XIX, Section 7 (a) of the Regulations of the Fund and the rules and regulations of the Related Fund, in effect on the second working day for the Fund before the value date of the transfer, exchange or payment. If the date for establishing the exchange rate is not a business day in Paris, then the date is the first previous business day for the Fund, which is also a business day in Paris.
(b) In order to apply the limits to the drawings specified in paragraphs 1 (a) and 2 (f), the value in euros of each drawing in SDR shall be determined and fixed on a final basis on the date of value of the drawing on the basis of the euro/SDR exchange rate established in accordance with the provisions of Article XIX, Section 7 (a) of the Fund's Regulations and the rules and regulations of the Fund, in force on the second working day of the Fund before the date of the drawing. If the date for establishing the exchange rate is not a business day in Paris, then the date is the first previous business day for the Fund, which is also a business day in Paris.
12. Review of the SDR assessment method.
If the Fund revises its SDR assessment method, transfers, exchanges and payments made two working days for the Fund or more after the effective revision date are assessed using the new methodology.
13. Non-subordination of claims.
The Fund shall prohibit any action arising from which the receivables on the Fund held by France in respect of the draws made under this Agreement would be subject in any way to claims on the Fund arising from Article VII, Section 1(i) of the Fund's Regulations.
14. Settlement of disputes.
Any dispute relating to this Agreement shall be amicable settlement between France and the Fund.
15. Cooperation with the Fund.
France is prepared to cooperate with the Fund in the spirit of the commitments made under the CMFI/G-20, as appropriate.
16. Final provisions.
(a) This Agreement, in a single copy in the English and French languages, shall be deposited with the archives of the Fund, which shall transmit a duly authenticated copy to the Government of France.
(b) This Agreement shall enter into force on the day on which the Fund acknowledges receipt in writing of the notification of its approval by the Government of France.
12 October 2012.
Done on 2 April 2013.
François Hollande
By the President of the Republic:
The Prime Minister,
Jean-Marc Ayrault
Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Laurent Fabius
For the French Government:
Pierre Moscovici
Minister of Economy
Finance
For the Monetary Fund
international:
Christine Lagarde
Executive Director
