The European Commission’s proposal amending elements of UCITS and AIFM directives could have been given greater scope and effectiveness,according to the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI).
ALFI’s statement, released on 15 March, followed the publication of the European Commission’s Proposal amending UCITS and Alternative Investment Funds Managers (AIFM) directives, also know as Directive 2009/65/EC and Directive 2011/61/EU, respectfully.
ALFI said: “[We] acknowledge the intention and efforts of the European Commission in its recently published proposal amending to remove barriers to cross-border distribution of collective investment funds while ensuring the requirement for a high level of investor protection.”
The association also suggested that the European Commission’s proposal should have been extended beyond the AIFM Directive context.
Alfi added:: “[We] support an approach where the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) would provide guidelines and examples to ensure a common understanding and implementation in the EU.”
ALFI considered that the text as proposed does not “provide for the level of harmonisation required to effectively achieve the removal of practices that have been identified as barriers to cross-border distribution of investment funds in the EU.”
The association stated that the framework outlined for pre-marketing, the conditions set for the de-registration of investment funds and the requirements for local administrative agents remain “too restrictive”.
ALFI intends to pursue its commitment towards the removal of barriers to cross-border distribution of investment funds and towards the Capital Markets Union initiative as a whole.
At this year’s European Asset Management Conference, Denise Voss, chairman of ALFI,.said that the CMU’s investment funds have an important role to play to drive growth and jobs moving forward, which she indicated ALFI welcomes.
In the statement, ALFI said it would provide the European Commission with detailed feedback on its proposal and accompanying impact assessment in due course.
