Regulatory notices
On April 23, 2024, the FCA published its guidance on the anti-greenwashing rule.
This guidance is intended to help firms understand the FCA’s expectations under the anti-money laundering rule that will enter into force end of next month.
The anti-greenwashing rule is one part of a package of measures the FCA finalised in November 2023 through our Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR) and investment labels regime (PS23/16).
The FCA consults on the extension of the Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR) and investment labels regime to portfolio management services and follows its Consultation Paper (CP22/20) and corresponding Policy Statement (PS23/16) on SDR and investment labels, which introduced a package of measures for fund managers.
The new rules subject to this consultation does not include services where the clients are based overseas meaning those that either normally reside outside of the UK or have their registered office (or head office) outside of the UK. It also does not include portfolio management provided to a client that is a fund, or an Alternative Investment Fund Manager or management company for or on behalf of a fund (i.e., where the portfolio manager acts as a delegate).
On April 22, 2024, FinDatEx released the final EMT Version 4.2.
This version submitted to consultation earlier in March 2024 is now available. It integrates the previous one (EMT V4.1) with a supplementary UK specific section linked to detailed on-going costs.
Following the objections communicated by the European Commission (EC) to ESMA regarding the Draft RTS on the revision of the ELTIF regulatory framework last month, ESMA responded with a limited number of changes to the amendments proposed by the EC in the form of an opinion as required by the legislative procedure.
The amended draft RTS are provided in appendix of this opinion. ESMA changes are shown in track changes highlighted in yellow while EC changes are highlighted in track changes.
ESAs recently announced the forthcoming of the voluntary exercise for the collection of the registers of information of contractual arrangements on the use of ICT third-party service providers by the financial entities, serving as preparation for the implementation and reporting of registers of information under DORA.
In this context:
On April2, 2024, the European Parliament ECON Committee adopted with majority the report on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council Amending Directives (EU) 2009/65/EC, 2009/138/EC, 2011/61/EU, 2014/65/EU and (EU) 2016/97 as regards the Union retail investor protection rules.
The core objective of the Commission proposal is to ensure that consumers can fully benefit from investment opportunities offered by capital markets, supported by a regulatory framework that enables them to make informed investment decisions.
On 9th of March 2024, the Financial Conduct Authority published a consultation paper on the revision of the regulatory fees and levies to be applied from 1st of April 2024 to 31st of March 2025.
On a cross-border distribution perspective, the FCA proposes a substantial reduction in fees for EEA UCITS marketed under the TPR.
On 25 of March 2024, the European Parliament ECON Committee adopted by majority vote the Report of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EU) No 1286/2014 as regards to the modernisation of the Key Information Document (KID).
The amendments to the existing Regulation and the Commission proposal adopted by the ECON Committee relates:
The CSSF updated its UCIs and AIFMD FAQs last week by providing more clarity on the condition a Luxembourg collective portfolio management company may market funds it manages as regards to applicable MiFID rules.
These FAQs elaborate on the indirect marketing provided by other Investment Fund Manager (IFM) and whether these IFMs are authorised to do so depending on the nature of the service they are providing.