Hong Kong and Netherlands MoU The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has been very active over the past couple of years in defining new privileged relationships with regulatory authorities across Europe and foster mutual recognition of funds with the authorities of those countries. By securing international agreements with UK, France and now the Netherlands,…
Crossborder investment services and activities license in Denmark. An Update for Brexit The Danish Financial Business Act contains provisions under article 33 for foreign credit institutions and investment firms intending to obtain a crossborder investment services and activities license in Denmark, with or without ancillary services, to deal exclusively with eligible counter-parties or professional clients….
A directive on the distance marketing of investment funds and broader consumer financial services was introduced in 2002 (please find the directive here). The main aim of the initiative was to further ensure the free movement of financial services in the single market in Europe. The directive, amongst other things, defines some of the main…
At the beginning of May this year the Financial Conduct Authority announced a change in the process to notify requests for marketing authorisations under the UK NPPR. As part of this change, notifications will not be made any longer using an excel form to be emailed to a dedicated address of the FCA. Instead, from…
ELTIFs can be marketed to both professional and retail investors across Europe. In addition to specific suitability tests to be carried out on retail investors, ELTIFs regulation also imposes to appoint a Facilities Agent for ELTIFs in all the EU domiciles where marketing will take place. The Facilities Agent for ELTIFs is not necessarily a…
EU Fund Distribution and PRIIPs KIDs notification are two interrelated subjects. Despite the fact that the European Parliament ordered at the end of 2018 a two-year delay for the application of PRIIPs rules for UCITS, these rules remain current for other funds, like retail AIFs and ELTIFs. In this post we will briefly touch on…
An Italian Brexit Law Decree entered into force last 26th March, introducing measures to establish a transitional regime in Italy in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The provisions of the Italian Brexit Law Decree will help mitigating risks for Italian clients and investors inherent to an unorganised discontinuation of business activities of UK firms…
AIFMD was introduced in 2011 with a very ambitious underpinning aim to create a wider regulatory and oversight blanket for actors in the financial markets, whose activities, so far unregulated, had exposed European markets to significant systemic risks in the years coming to the financial crisis of 2008. With the introduction of harmonised requirements across…
Introduced with a regulation in 2015, ELTIFs is another acronym in the European regulation on financial services and stands for European Long-term investment funds. One of the unique features of this type of funds is that it is open to retail investors. ELTIFs are set to become very important tools for alternative capital raising to…
With March 2019 looming, same as the possibility of a no deal case scenario for the future relationship between the UK and the EU, it is useful to refresh some of the main concepts surrounding the existing alternative avenues to ensure third country access to EU markets. Equivalence assessments by the EU Commission is possibly…