On October 25th, the Argentine Securities Commission (“CNV”) issued General Resolution No. 813/2019 (“GR CNV 813/19”), which authorizes certain companies subject to CNV´s regulatory compliance (issuers of debt and shares publicly offered) to keep all of their corporate and accounting books digitally; a possibility that already existed but only for the Registry of Attendance to Shareholders’ Meetings book.

GR CNV 813/19 was issued following the guidelines of Law No. 27,444 (Simplification and De-Bureaucratization for the Productive Development of the Nation) and establishes the requirements to request such authorization, including the need to digitally sign corporate and accounting books, for which company signatories need to obtain a digital certificate issued by a licensed certifier.

In order to avoid problems with the digital signature verification software, companies must choose between the following alternatives:

  1. hire an online verification and signature verification service with a licensed certifying authority; or
  2. develop the signature verification and time stamp software and have an external auditor’s opinion regarding its correct operation.

Furthermore, companies must keep support documentation of their accounting operations and their management. In case of entrusting the deposit of such documentation to third parties, they must state in a note to their financial statements the place where it is stored, and identify the subject in charge of the deposit and its address.

RG CNV 813/19 entered into force last Monday, October 28th.

For further information, do not hesitate to contact Juan Pablo Bove, Federico Otero, Julián Razumny, Pablo Tarantino, and/or Agustín Griffi.