Financial contracts in OHADA

Financial contracts are financial instruments used to hedge against financial risks, without actually owning the financial assets that generate them. They can be likened to a weapon of mass destruction, given their exceptional risk-generating capacity. But it has to be said that the legal framework for these financial instruments in the OHADA region does not provide effective protection against these risks. This situation is the result of the embryonic nature of their legal framework, which suffers from a lack of precision as regards both the object and cause of financial contracts, as well as their negotiation procedures. As the OHADA legislative reform is likely to expose players to the risks associated with financial contracts, the concern for legal certainty has led us to find legal ways and means of strengthening their legal framework. The result is the need to establish a legal regime for financial contracts that not only affirms the autonomy of financial law, and derogates from certain principles of ordinary law, but also improves prudential rules in this area.