The Council adopted the UCITS IV directive.
22 July 2009
The Directive modernises the regulatory framework with key investor information, a passport for management companies and cross-border marketing and mergers.
Press release
The Council adopted a directive on undertakings for collective investment in transferable Securities (UCITS), following first-reading agreement with the European Parliament.
This directive seeks to update the regulatory framework applicable to European investment funds – (UCITS) – which represent a market of around EUR 5 000 billion.
The aim of the directive is to modernise the regulatory framework applicable to these financial products in order to:
- offer investors a greater choice of product at lower cost through better integration of the internal market;
- provide investors with suitable protection through high-quality information and more efficient supervision;
- maintain the competitiveness of European industry by adjusting the regulatory framework to developments in the market.
Against this background, the text is aimed at fulfilling the following objectives:
- improve investor information by creating a standardised summary information document.
- create a genuine European passport for UCITS management companies – this is the last piece missing from the internal market as regards UCITS management.
- facilitate cross-border marketing of UCITS by simplifying administrative procedures: there will be immediate market access once the authorisation has been granted by the country of origin of the UCITS; the host country will be able to monitor the commercial documents but not to block access to the market;
- facilitate cross-border mergers of UCITS, which will make it possible to increase the average size of European funds
- facilitate asset pooling by creating a framework for the system of "master-feeder" arrangements whereby a fund invests more than 85 % of its assets in another fund;
- strengthen the supervision of UCITS and of the companies that manage them, by means of enhanced cooperation between supervisors
