Euroclear has announced reforms to modernise France's commercial paper market, giving the 'titres de créances négociables' a new name, although the legal nature of the negotiable debt securities remains the same. The TCN market is the second largest commercial paper market in Europe and the largest in the Eurozone.

The reforms include eight key measures, one of which is reforming the legal framework. This move will open up the market to a larger number of issuers, both in France and abroad, as well as an enlarged investor base. Euroclear states: “By favouring a better allocation of resources and wider diversification of financing, the reform closely reflects the aims of the Capital Markets Union launched by the European Commission last year.”

Another measure is the introduction of a new commercial name for French commercial paper with a maturity up to one year, as well as the merger of what were formerly certificates of deposit issued by credit institutions and commercial paper issued by non-financial corporations. These financial instruments will be known by the new commercial name of Negotiable European Commercial Paper (NEU CP), pronounced 'new CP'.

Other measures include a new eNEU CP service to be offered by Euroclear France in its role as financial market infrastructure. Euroclear stated: “Dealers will now be able to initiate the demand of transaction identification (ISIN) codes and to benefit from their generation in real-time. This change, alongside settlement in central bank money, reinforces the efficiency and security of the transactions.”

The TCN market was created in 1985. The reforms are part of the Place de Paris 2020 initiative, which sees industry associations and market participants, including Euroclear France, together with the French Treasury, Paris Europlace and the Banque de France develop a range of measures to modernise the TCN market.

France's central bank issued these details about the eight reforms on its website:

The reform is enacted by Decree n° 2016-707 of 05/30/2016 and an Order of 05/30/2016 issued subsequent to the opinion of the European Central Bank of 30 March 2016. While the reform does not change the legal nature of the debt instruments, market functioning and supervision, or collateral eligibility rules for Eurosystem refinancing, it does:

1. Merge negotiable debt paper with maturities of up to one year (former certificates of deposit issued by credit institutions and commercial paper issued by non-financial corporations) into a new category called "titres négociables à court terme” in the financial and monetary code ;
2. Give this paper a new trade name: “Negotiable European Commercial Paper” (NEU CP, pronounced “new CP”) chosen by the marketplace;
3. Align the legal term for securities with maturities of more than one year: “titres négociables à moyen terme” (formerly, “bons à moyen terme négociables”) in the financial and monetary code ;
4. Make it possible to draft the information memorandum in a language commonly used in financial matters, other than French, with no requirement to provide a summary in French;
5. Open the market up to more international issuers with broader acceptance of the local accounting standards of countries in the European Economic Area, and of accounting and auditing standards that the European Commission recognises as equivalent to European standards in the case of third-country issuers;
6. Provide efficient post-market infrastructures that enable dealers to request transaction identification codes called ISIN codes (new eNEU CP tool) that are then generated in real time. This system, backed up by settlement in central-bank money, enhances the efficiency and legal certainty of transactions;
7. Open up the list of credit rating agencies accepted for market access to all of the agencies registered with the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), subject to certain requirements (methodology, 3 years of historical statistical data);
8. Simplify the regulatory texts, with one Order, instead of four previously.