1 Legal & Regulatory

1.1 UCITS Update

There have been a number of developments over the quarter:

Review of the Irish UCITS regulatory framework

On 29 March 2018 the Central Bank of Ireland (the "Central Bank") published a consultation paper ("CP119") which proposes to consolidate and amend the Central Bank (Supervision and Enforcement) Act 2013 (Section 48(1)) (Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities) Regulations 2015 (which forms the basis for the Irish regulatory framework for UCITS along with regulatory guidance and Central Bank Q&As on specific issues).

Changes are reflected in the draft Central Bank UCITS Regulations appended to CP119. Some key changes include:

  • New obligations relating to UCITS which charge performance fees;
  • Amendments in light of the Money Market Funds Regulation and CP86;
  • Changes in relation to management company/depositary second set of semi-annual accounts;
  • Adjustments to depositary obligations;
  • Agreement requirements to reflect UCITS V;
  • New requirements in relation to temporary suspension; and
  • Consolidation of some amending Central Bank UCITS Regulations. The closing date for responses is 29 June 2018.

For more information see our client update, Central Bank Review of the Regulatory Framework for Irish UCITS (CP119)

Central Bank Q&A

On 2 January 2018 a further edition of its UCITS Q&A added two new questions. One confirms that the name of the benchmark administrator does not need to be identified in the UCITS prospectus in the context of the Benchmark Regulation. The other question on the PRIIPS Regulation confirms that UCITS are exempt from producing a PRIIPS KID until 31 December 2019.

Cross border distribution

On 12 March 2018 the European Commission published a proposed regulation on cross-border distribution of investment funds, which amongst other things, proposes to amend the UCITS Directive - see 1.3 below for further details.

Download >> Funds - Ireland - Quarterly Update Q1 | January – March 2018

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