New UCITS Regulations, Guidance and Q&A, AIFMD Q&A, Investor Money Regulations Q&A

As anticipated, the Central Bank of Ireland (Central Bank) published new Central Bank UCITS Regulations which will commence on 1 November 2015 (CB UCITS Regulations). The CB UCITS Regulations supplement existing legislative requirements, in particular the European Communities (Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities) Regulations 2011. For the most part, the rules in the CB UCITS Regulations are the same as the conditions set out in the Central Bank’s UCITS Notices but a small number of policy changes are included. The Central Bank has also restructured its UCITS guidance to reflect the publication of the CB UCITS Regulations, as detailed below.

The Central Bank issued a markets update on 5 October 2015 which includes:

  • The CB UCITS Regulations
  • The restructured UCITS guidance which reflects the publication of the CB UCITS Regulations and will also come into effect on 1 November 2015.  The current UCITS guidance in the form of Guidance Notes) will remain on the Central Bank website until that date and will be removed thereafter.
  • UCITS Q&A Seventh Edition. The Q&A contains new questions ID 1018 to 1046 reflect the introduction of the CB UCITS Regulations 2015, questions ID 1007 and ID1009 are no longer relevant and have been deleted and question ID 1008 has been re-written to reference the CB UCITS Regulations 2015.
  • Feedback statement on CP77  (Consultation on publication of UCITS Rulebook)  
  • Feedback statement on CP84 (Consultation on the adoption of ESMA’s revised guidelines on ETFs and other UCITS issues)
  • AIFMD Q&A - Sixteenth Edition. New questions ID 1097 (Directed Brokerage), ID1098 (Board Composition) and ID1099 (Non- material change) are included. 
  • First edition of the Investor Money Q&A. The Investor Money Regulations Q&A sets out answers to queries likely to arise in relation to the implementation of the Investor Money Regulations.

We expect that the UCITS application forms will be updated in advance of 1 November 2015 (the commencement date of the CB UCITS Regulations)

For more information please contact Nollaig Greene or a member of the Asset Management & Investment Funds Team.

Date Published: 06 October 2015