Regulatory notices
On May 31, 2024, the European Supervisory Authorities published the details of the DORA Dry Run exercise on reporting of the registers of information of contractual arrangements with the ICT third-party providers.
This dry run exercise was announced earlier in April and recently CSSF invited its supervised entities to participate on a voluntary basis.
The General Directorate of the Treasury, a division of the French Ministry of Economy, Finance, and Digital and Industrial Sovereignty, has recently released a Frequently Asked Questions document regarding the implementation of Article 29 of the Climate and Energy Law. This particular article focuses on the non-financial reporting requirements for French financial institutions.
This document provides further clarification on the application of Article 29 in relation to its scope, the consolidation of information at the level of the management company, the filing of the report with the Registrar, the format and medium of the report, mandates and dedicated funds in excess of EUR 500 million, its interaction with European sustainable finance regulations, the method of calculating exposure to the fossil fuel sector and, finally, the content of the report.
ESMA updated its website with several Q&As on European crowdfunding service providers for business (ECSPR), European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR), Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR), Undertakings for Collective Investment Scheme (UCITS) and Alternative Investment Fund Manager Directive (AIFMD).
In particular the AIFMD and UCITS Q&As relate to performance fees.
On 27 May 2024, ESMA published its report on the 2023 Common Supervisory Action (CSA) and Mystery Shopping Exercise (MSE) on marketing launched last year.
ESMA coordinated this initiative, which was carried out by the National Competent Authorities (NCAs) throughout 2023. In total, 27 NCAs took part in the 2023 CSA, encompassing both large and small firms in their national selections. The CSA sample consisted of 208 firms (with an average of 8 firms per NCA), while the MSE sample included 62 firms (with an average of 9 firms per NCA).
The Official Journal of the French Republic has published the Order of 16 May 2024 amending the Order of 8 January 2016 defining the reference framework and the control and monitoring plan for the Socially Responsible Investment label (“Label ISR”).
The publication of the order follows the presentation of the new reference framework for the Socially Responsible Investment label by the Ministry of the Economy on 13 December last.
The CSSF and ALFI will organise a webinar on the new Circular CSSF 24/856 on June 6, 2024 at10:30 CEST.
The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session.
ESMA published its Final Report on Guidelines on funds’ names using ESG or sustainability-related terms on May 14, 2024. These Guidelines were developed based on the input received during a consultation process conducted in the winter of 2022-2023 and on the current UCITS and AIFMD frameworks.
The primary aim of the Guidelines is to safeguard investors from unfounded or exaggerated sustainability assertions in fund names. Additionally, they aim to offer asset managers well-defined and quantifiable criteria to evaluate their eligibility in utilizing ESG or sustainability-related terms in fund names.
On May 7, 2024, ESMA published a Call for Evidence on the review of the UCITS Eligible Assets Directive (EAD).
In June last year, the European Commission has tasked ESMA with assessing the implementation of the EAD across Member States which is in force for nearly two decades in view of refreshing this text in accordance with the current products and market practices.
On 1st of May, the FCA published its Joint Roadmap with the Treasury to implementing the Overseas Funds Regime that will fade away the Temporary Marketing Permission Regime granted to EEA funds to continue marketed their shares/units in UK after the withdrawal of the country from the European Union.
In January 2024, the Government assessed the equivalence of the EEA UCITS schemes to the relevant UK regulations, excepted Money Market Funds (MMF) that remain excluded from the OFR but still benefiting of the TMPR until end of 2026. In between, new rules will have been introduced.