Investment Funds Update Europe - Legal and regulatory updates for the funds industry from the key asset management centres and primary European fund domiciles - Issue 4, 2018: Ireland

Dechert LLP
Contact

Dechert LLP

Consultation Paper: amendments to Central Bank UCITS Regulations

The Central Bank published a Consultation Paper (CP 119) on 29 March 2018, proposing amendments to the Central Bank UCITS Regulations and the consolidation of previous amendments. The proposed amendments arise from a 2017 review by the Central Bank of the Regulations, to implement the ESMA Opinion to National Competent Authorities on Share Classes and as a result of the EU Regulation on Money Market Funds. The Consultation Paper also proposes to introduce new obligations (formerly Central Bank guidance) relating to UCITS which charge performance related fees.

Read the Consultation Paper in full.

Central Bank thematic review of UCITS performance fees

The Central Bank announced in March 2018, plans to conduct a thematic inspection of UCITS performance fees. The primary focus of the review will be to evaluate practices relating to (i) the calculation of performance fees by fund administrators; and (ii) the verification of performance fees by fund depositaries. The Central Bank will carry out on-site visits to administrators and depositaries to facilitate the review.

The Central Bank aims to conclude its findings by the end of May 2018 and will determine at this stage what action, if any, will be taken.

Irish Revenue guidance on returns earned by investment managers

The Irish Revenue Commissioners (“Revenue”) issued a new Tax and Duty Manual (the “Tax Manual”) on 16 April 2018, setting out the position regarding the taxation of returns earned by regulated investment managers. The Tax Manual outlined a number of specific scenarios in which Revenue views investment managers as taxable on the return earned by them on investments in fund which they manage. Revenue stated that the above scenarios should not be regarded as having any particular impact on existing established tax principles for determining whether returns from other investment activity carried on by the investment manager would be subject to tax on trading account.

Read the Tax Manual in full.

Latest Irish fund statistics

The Central Bank released a paper on 23 March 2018, detailing investment fund statistics for Q4 2017. The total value of assets held by investment funds increased by € 65 billion over the quarter, reaching € 2,239 billion.

Read the statistical release paper.

At 31 March 2018 there were 560 UCITS funds authorised by the Central Bank and 4289 including sub-funds. In respect of AIFs, there were 331 designated investment companies, (1156 including sub-funds), 242 ICAVs (558 including sub-funds) and 141 Unit Trusts (787 including sub-funds) authorised at the same date.

The total number of authorised and registered AIFMs with the Central Bank was 161, there were 656 AIFMs providing services in Ireland on a cross-border basis, and 87 authorised UCITS management companies on 1 March 2018.

The Central Bank registers are available here.

 

DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.

© Dechert LLP | Attorney Advertising

Written by:

Dechert LLP
Contact
more
less

Dechert LLP on:

Reporters on Deadline

"My best business intelligence, in one easy email…"

Your first step to building a free, personalized, morning email brief covering pertinent authors and topics on JD Supra:
*By using the service, you signify your acceptance of JD Supra's Privacy Policy.
Custom Email Digest
- hide
- hide