REGULATORY CLIENT UPDATE / JUNE 2022

30 June 2022

REGULATORY CLIENT UPDATE / JUNE 2022

Highlights:

Reserved Alternative Investment Funds (“RAIFs”) are a specific category of investment vehicles in Luxembourg indirectly regulated via their regulated Alternative Investment Fund Manager (“AIFM”). Recently, the Luxembourg government – Administration de l’Enregistrement, des Domaines et de la TVA (“AED”) published a guide to provide RAIFs with a better understanding of regulatory expectations regarding Anti-Money Laundering and the Counter Financing of Terrorism (“AML/CFT”) obligations applicable to RAIFs.

The guide is divided in three major sections, which aim to cover:

  • The duty of vigilance
  • The duty of internal organization
  • The duty of cooperation

The guide also includes ways, means and sanctions and a list of templates.

Luxembourg Market Update:

The aggregate assets under management overseen by Luxembourg management companies amounted to €5.3trn at the end of last year, a 22% increase from €4.16trn in December 2020, according to a report by PwC Luxembourg. Although 13 new licences were issued to ManCos last year, the total number of businesses in the sector fell from 314 to 305 due to mergers. The authors of the study also report that employment in the sector increased by 7% to around 6,600 people last year.

Regulatory Developments in and beyond Luxembourg:

22 April 2022: CSSF publishes Circular CSSF 22/807 amending Circular CSSF 12/552 (only in French)

The purpose of the circular is to implement several guidelines from the European Supervisory Authorities by amending Circular CSSF 12/552. The guidelines are the following: EBA Guidelines on internal governance (EBA/GL/2021/05), joint ESMA and EBA guidelines on the assessment of the suitability of members of the management body (ESMA35-36-2319, EBA/GL/2021/06) and ESMA guidelines on certain aspects of MiFID II compliance function requirements (ESMA35-36-1952). Furthermore, additional amendments were made in order to adapt or specify certain sections of Circular CSSF 12/552. These amendments concern notably the responsibilities of the compliance function with respect to AML/CFT; the annual summary report of the compliance function; and outsourcing requirements.

12 May 2022: CSSF publishes Circular CSSF 22/810 on notification procedures

The purpose of the circular is to inform Luxembourg UCIs and investment fund managers that the CSSF will phase in the notification and de-notification procedures for pre-marketing and cross-border marketing on the eDesk portal. 

16 May 2022: CSSF publishes Circular CSSF 22/811 – UCI administrators

The circular clarifies the activity of UCI administrators by specifying the principles of sound governance and the CSSF requirements on internal organisation and good practice applicable to them. To that effect, the circular will apply to the entities acting as UCI administrator for regulated and non-regulated UCIs whether or not established in Luxembourg. 

25 May 2022: European Commission publishes answers to ESAs questions on SFDR and Taxonomy Regulation

 

The European Commission published its answers to the questions submitted by the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) regarding SFDR and the Taxonomy Regulation.  Th following topics are of note:

  • Principal adverse impact disclosures;
  • Requirements for financial advisers;
  • Transparency of the integration of sustainability risks and rules for products no longer made available;
  • Good governance practices;
  • Scope of Article 5-6 Taxonomy Regulation.

31 May 2022: ESMA final report concerning costs and fees in funds

ESMA has published its final report on costs and fees for investment funds, based on the Common Supervisory Action (CSA) conducted in 2021 by national competent authorities. 

 

The findings include:

  • There is room for improvement on the application of the ESMA supervisory briefing on the supervision of costs in UCITS and AIFs, particularly for smaller management companies;
  • Some questions arise concerning compliance with delegation rules where portfolio managers i.e. delegates, exercise significant influence or even decide the level of costs;
  • Divergent market practices exist as to what industry reported as “due” or “undue” costs;
  • Some NCAs discovered conflicts of interest at UCITS managers, in particular in case of related-party transactions;
  • In some instances there is a lack of policies and procedures on efficient portfolio management (EPMs) and lack of clear disclosures as required under the ESMA Guidelines on ETFs and other UCITS issues; and
  • Widespread use of fixed fee split arrangements for securities lending continues, with unfavourable results for retail investors.

On the topic of investor compensation, ESMA stresses the importance of ensuring that investors are adequately compensated in all cases where they were charged with undue costs or fees, and also in cases where there were calculation errors that resulted in a financial detriment for investors.

31 May 2022: ESMA supervisory briefing on sustainability risks and disclosures

The briefing content includes: 

Consistency of sustainability-related disclosures:

The ESMA Supervisory Briefing recommends that NCAs check that the sustainability related disclosures are consistent across the fund documentation and the  marketing material. 

Consideration of PAI by Article 9 products:

NCAs could reasonably expect Article 9 products to consider PAI as referred to in SFDR Article 7 on the basis that Article 9 products should only be making sustainable investments, and this involves applying the ‘do no significant harm’ test (which requires the disclosure of how the PAI indicators have been taken into account). However, the ESMA Supervisory Briefing does state that such consideration is not mandatory. 

Guidance on SFDR disclosures

Disclosure should: 

  • Not include boilerplate language with complex legal disclaimers or technical jargon that is difficult to understand;
  • Avoid the repeated use of the same standard text across different funds;
  • Limit use of cross-references or hyperlinks to where it is specifically required in the annexes of the SFDR Delegated Regulation; and
  • Contain an indication of the SFDR article under which the fund is disclosing (without giving the impression that it is a label). 

Fund names must not be misleading 

‘ESG’, ‘green’, ‘sustainable’, ‘social’, ‘ethical’, ‘impact’ or any other ESG-related terms should only be used in the fund name when the evidence of sustainability characteristics are reflected fairly and consistently in the fund’s investment objectives and policy and its strategy, as described in the fund documentation. Article 8 Products that do not make any sustainable investments are advised not to use the terms ‘sustainable’ or ‘sustainability’ in their name to avoid confusing investors. Words such as ‘impact’ or ‘impact investing’ should only be used for funds whose investments are made with the intention to generate positive, measurable social and environmental impact. Funds that are tracking an index should use ESG-related terms only if the index is itself ESG-focused. 

Guidance for sustainable investment policy, objectives, and strategy

Sustainable objectives or characteristics should be clearly identified and general terms such as ‘the fund pursues ESG objectives’ without further explanation should  be avoided. It should be stated how the investment strategy is linked to the sustainable objectives.

Integration of sustainability risks by AIFMs

The ESMA Supervisory Briefing contains a reminder that AIFMs – regardless of whether they offer sustainable funds – are required from 1 August 2022 to integrate sustainability risks in their portfolio and risk management processes and overall governance structure.

2 June 2022: the ESAs’ clarifications on the draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) under SFDR 

The ESA Clarifications focus on the following key areas of the Final Reports: PAI disclosures, disclosures for direct and indirect investments in pre-contractual and periodic disclosures, financial product disclosures, “do not significantly harm” (DNSH) disclosures.

10 June 2022: AED's AML guidelines for RAIFs

As the relevant supervisory authority, the AED released the Guide to RAIFs in meeting their professional obligations in AML/CFT matters. The Guide is informational, and describes the minimum AML/CFT obligations that RAIFs must meet. The Guide provides useful general information around AML/CFT (definitions, summary of professional obligations, etc.), in addition to practical examples and checklists.

Relevant existing materials have been fully integrated into the Guide, including forms, contact details and guidance on the AML questionnaire to be submitted to the AED. It is thus a very useful tool.

The Guide only applies to RAIFs; it does not apply to other types of unregulated funds. Unregulated funds that are not subject to a product law remain subject to the AML Law, and must comply with their obligations under it.

20 June 2022: Communication regarding the introduction of a new eDesk module – ePassporting

Following the publication of Circular CSSF 22/810 on 12 May 2022, the CSSF informs the following supervised entities that they must comply with the marketing notification and de-notification procedures, including any updates, which will be exclusively available via the eDesk Portal as of 1 July 2022:

a) Luxembourg AIFMs wishing to:

  • notify arrangements or de-notify arrangements made for marketing in Luxembourg of units or shares of an EU AIF that they manage in accordance with Article 29 respectively Article 29-1 of the AIFM Law;

b) Luxembourg AIFMs wishing to:

  • notify arrangements or de-notify arrangements made for marketing in another Member State of units or shares of an EU AIF that they manage in accordance with Article 30 respectively Article 30-1 of the AIFM Law;

c) Managers of Luxembourg EuVECAs or EuSEFs wishing to market in Luxembourg or another Member State in accordance with Article 16(1) of Regulation (EU) No 345/2013 or Article 17(1) of Regulation (EU) No 346/2013 respectively.

For the avoidance of doubt, the AIFMs mentioned under point a. and b. also include Luxembourg AIFMs of European long-term investment funds (“ELTIFs”) that wish to (de-) notify arrangements for marketing of units or shares of ELTIFs in accordance with Articles 29, 29-1, 30 and 30-1 of the AIFM Law respectively.

The eDesk Portal can be accessed at the following address: https://edesk.apps.cssf.lu/edesk-dashboard/dashboard/getstarted.

The list of procedures concerned is published and updated on the home page of the eDesk Portal and should be regularly checked by the relevant entities.

Additional information and instructions in the form of user guide is also provided by following this link: User guide – eDesk – ePassporting module.

 

For further information, please contact:

Tobias Ettlin
m: +352 691 111 931 
tobias.ettlin@one-gs.com

Disclaimer: This regulatory update has been prepared for clients of ONE group solutions and its subsidiaries for informational purposes and is not intended to be relied upon as professional advice. Please visit: https://www.one-gs.com/

 

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