On 1 November 2023, in a welcome development, the Central Bank of Ireland (the "Central Bank") published Consultation Paper 155 on the proposed new European Long-Term Investment Funds ("ELTIF") chapter in the Central Bank's...more
Welcome to the July – September 2023 issue of our Irish Quarterly Legal and Regulatory Developments report for asset management and investment funds.
This report covers key dates and developments during the quarter, such...more
10/18/2023
/ Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) ,
Asset Management ,
Client Assets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Data Protection ,
Deadlines ,
ELTIF ,
EMIR ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
ESRB ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) ,
European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) ,
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ,
FSB ,
Investment Adviser ,
Investment Funds ,
MiFID ,
MiFID II ,
Outsourcing ,
Privacy Framework ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Sustainable Finance ,
UCITS
Yesterday, ESMA published a risk analysis report outlining the results of its disclosure study on ESG names and claims in the EU funds industry.
ESMA utilised natural language processing ("NLP") techniques to analyse the...more
10/4/2023
/ Disclosure Requirements ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
EU ,
European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) ,
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ,
Greenwashing ,
Investment ,
Investment Funds ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Reporting Requirements ,
UCITS ,
UK
Today sees a significant and very welcome announcement by Irish Funds in relation to the Irish implementation of the ELTIF 2.0 framework.
Irish Funds has confirmed in a communication to member firms that following...more
On 18 July 2023, the Central Bank of Ireland (the "Central Bank") published its latest discussion paper entitled "An approach to macroprudential policy for investment funds" (the "Paper"). The purpose of this Paper is to...more
In this quarter's edition of the legal and regulatory report, we include a number of key outputs from ESMA, including its updates to Q&As on the application of the AIFMD and the UCITS Directive (outlined at sections 1.2 and...more
7/14/2023
/ Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) ,
Asset Management ,
Beneficial Owner ,
Central Bank of Ireland ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
ESRB ,
European Banking Authority (EBA) ,
European Commission ,
European Parliament ,
European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) ,
Filing Deadlines ,
Financial Markets ,
Investment Funds ,
IOSCO ,
SFDR ,
UCITS
On 24 May 2023, the European Commission (the "Commission") adopted and published its retail investment strategy ("RIS") a key tenet of its Capital Markets Union Action Plan (the "CMU Action Plan"). One of the core objectives...more
6/28/2023
/ Capital Markets ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Investment ,
Investment Funds ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Retail Investors
On 13 June 2023, the European Commission (the "Commission") published a significant sustainable finance package on EU Taxonomy, ESG ratings and transition finance.
Expansion of Taxonomy Regulation framework -
The...more
On 1 June 2023, the three European Supervisory Authorities (the “ESAs”) published their respective progress reports (ESMA, EBA and EIOPA) in response to a request for their input from the European Commission (the...more
6/12/2023
/ EIOPA ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
European Banking Authority (EBA) ,
European Commission ,
European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) ,
European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) ,
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Greenwashing ,
Investment Management ,
National Competent Authorities (NCA) ,
SFDR ,
SMSG ,
Sustainability ,
UK
Welcome to the January – March 2023 issue of our Irish Quarterly Legal and Regulatory Developments report for asset management and investment funds.
This report covers key dates and developments during the quarter under...more
4/21/2023
/ Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) ,
Asset Management ,
Companies Registration Office (CRO) ,
ELTIF ,
EMIR ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) ,
European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) ,
Financial Stability Board ,
Investment Funds ,
MiFID ,
Money Market Funds ,
National Competent Authorities (NCA) ,
SFDR ,
UCITS ,
UK
On 4 April 2023, in a welcome development the Central Bank of Ireland (the "Central Bank") updated its AIFMD Q&A (47th edition) to increase the investment limits for qualifying investor alternative investment funds ("QIAIFs")...more
On 24 March 2023, the Central Bank of Ireland (the "Central Bank") published its industry letter (the "Industry Letter") setting out its own findings and expectations following its review of the costs and fees charged to...more
On 20 March 2023, the revised European Long-Term Investment Funds Regulation (EU) 2023/606 (the “Regulation”) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union, entering into force on the twentieth day following...more
On 9 March 2023, the President of Ireland signed the Central Bank (Individual Accountability Framework) Bill 2022 (the "Bill") into law. See our previous update here for a detailed examination of the contents of the Bill. ...more
On 2 March 2023, the Central Bank of Ireland (the “Central Bank”) published its third annual Securities Markets Risk Outlook Report (the “Report”). The Report highlights the conduct risks that the Central Bank has identified...more
3/9/2023
/ Central Bank of Ireland ,
Cryptoassets ,
Cybersecurity ,
Economic Downturn ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
EU ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Investment ,
Liquidity ,
Popular ,
Risk Assessment ,
Securities ,
SFDR ,
Sustainability
Welcome to the October – December 2022 issue of our Irish Quarterly Legal and Regulatory Developments report for asset management and investment funds. This report covers key developments during the quarter under the...more
On 1 December 2022, the Central Bank of Ireland (the “Central Bank”) published its consultation paper CP152 on own funds requirements for UCITS management companies and AIFMs authorised for discretionary portfolio management...more
On 7 December 2022, the Central Bank of Ireland (the “Central Bank”) issued a 'Dear CEO' letter (the "Letter") setting out the findings of its recently completed thematic review assessing how Fund Management Companies have...more
Substantial changes to Irish whistleblowing law will be introduced by the Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Act, 2022 (the “Amendment Act”) on 1 January 2023.
Protection for whistleblowers is not a new concept in...more
12/1/2022
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Confidentiality Policies ,
Criminal Liability ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
EU ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Ireland ,
Protected Disclosures ,
Terrorist Financing ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
As outlined in our previous advisory ‘Central Bank’s property fund proposals’, the Central Bank of Ireland (the “Central Bank”) has recently been consulting on two key proposals:
a proposal to introduce leverage limits...more
On 16 November 2022, the Central Bank of Ireland (the "Central Bank") published a public statement relating to its enforcement action against a UCITS management company which has been fined €117,600 and reprimanded by the...more
On 14 November 2022, the Central Bank of Ireland (the “Central Bank”) published an Industry Communication entitled “Sustainable finance and the asset management sector: Disclosures, investment processes & risk management”....more
1.1 ESMA UCITS Q&A updates On 20 July 2022, ESMA published an updated version of its UCITS Q&As with the following new Q&As:
Section X: Depository – new Q&As 7 and 8 on reconciliations; and -
• Section XIII: Delegation...more
10/17/2022
/ Amended Regulation ,
Central Bank of Ireland ,
Enforcement ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) ,
FSMA ,
IOSCO ,
ISDA ,
Liquidity ,
Money Market Funds ,
UCITS
On 4 October 2022, the Central Bank of Ireland published a notice of intention with process clarifications for UCITS and AIFs pre-contractual documentation updates ahead of the implementation of the SFDR Level 2 requirements...more
The Central Bank (Individual Accountability Framework) Bill 2022 (the “IAF Bill“) was published on 28 July 2022 by the Department of Finance, following the publication of the General Scheme of the IAF Bill (“General Scheme”)...more