For more than 25 years, the essential text for anybody wishing to navigate the regulatory environment for UCITS in Ireland has been the UCITS Notices which were supplemented by UCITS Guidance and then the UCITS Q&A.

This infrastructure has been subject to a detailed review by the Central Bank of Ireland (the “Central Bank”) and, on 1 November 2015, the UCITS Notices were decommissioned and replaced by the Central Bank (Supervision and Enforcement) Act 2013 (section 49(1)) (Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities) Regulations 2015 (the “Regulations”). The Regulations are supplemented with thematic online guidance (the “guidance”) and a UCITS Q&A.

While largely a consolidation and tidy up of the previous UCITS Notices and Guidance Notes regime, there are some significant changes that will come into effect for both existing and future Irish UCITS. This OnPoint provides information regarding (i) the background to the Regulations; (ii) the layout and format of the Regulations; (iii) changes to the existing regulatory conditions; (iv) transition timelines; (v) expected changes to the Regulations in the near future; and (vi) other miscellaneous provisions of which readers should be aware.

The Central Bank issued an updated UCITS Q&A on 4 November 2015, which provided a number of clarifications to the implementation to the Regulations. The information in this Q&A is included herein.