Tags

Investment Funds (0)
UCITS Directive (6)
Eurofi Report 5 Regulatory improvements Investment products type-docpdf type-doc178.53 Ko calendar-select06-02-2009
document Summarized Text :
The1current financial crisis and the alleged Madoff fraud have revealed risks and gaps in investment products regulation and supervision that need to be solved at the EU and possibly global regulatory levels with clarified and more harmonized responsibilities and liabilities along the fund value chain. Assessing further harmonisation opportunities of the framework of non UCITS investment products should also be a major objective for the Commission following a clarification of the needs of retail and institutional investors.

1. Clarifying responsibilities along the fund value chain and launching a harmonization effort across Europe are major priorities:

tags-label Tags : UCITS Directive, Asset Management, Non harmonised funds, TA, Depositaries, UCITS, Competing products, Risk management,
tags-label Type : Event Report
EUROFI PRIORITIES FOR ECOFIN type-docpdf type-doc115.97 Ko calendar-select10-09-2008
document Summarized Text :
Eurofi, the dedicated think-tank for the integration of financial services in Europe, is organizing a conference on September 11 and 12 to discuss the proposals put forward by the financial industry at the ECOFIN, set against a global crisis with leaders facing new challenges.

This crisis shows that the supervision of cross-border financial groups must be adapted in order to factor in the rapid spillover of risks, the internationalization of their activities and the centralized organization of their financial management and strategy.
That is why Eurofi is proposing a series of pragmatic measures to improve the supervision of these groups and the prevention of crises, notably including:
- The establishment of colleges grouping the European supervisors concerned together, which would be given a similar mandate in order to ensure identical protection for all of the group’s European customers;
- A specific role entrusted to the supervisor from the home European country, ensuring that decisions relating to capital requirements and the organization of supervision can be taken quickly and effectively, and that information is immediately made available to all the other supervisors;
- The mission entrusted to the European supervisor committees (CEBS and CEIOPS), to facilitate the resolution of possible differences of views between supervisors from a given college and check that the conditions for fair competition between the financial institutions are brought about.

tags-label Tags : CEIOPS, Occupational Pensions, Solvency II directive, Microcredit, UCITS Directive, Management company, UCITS, Cross-border fund processing, Prudential rules, Accounting rules, CEBS, Regulation, Supervision,
tags-label Type : Event Report
UCITS Regulatory framework type-docpdf type-doc122.45 Ko calendar-select10-09-2008
document Summarized Text :
There is a strong agreement among industry stakeholders on the added value of the proposals made for reviewing the UCITS Directive (UCITS IV) ie streamlining of the notification process, fund mergers, pooling / master feeder techniques, Key Three main conditions indeed need to be fulfilled for a MC to manage UCITS funds on a remote basis:

- UCITS funds receiving services from a MC based abroad must continue to be managed and administered by the MC in compliance with the relevant rules of the UCITS domicile
- A clear definition of the respective responsibilities of the Fund regulator and of the MC regulator must be possible as well as cooperation mechanisms between regulators and interfaces between regulators, the MC and the depositary
-The conditions required for passporting MC collective portfolio services should generate sufficient economic benefits and not lead to regressions in Member States (MSs) where administrative activities can be widely outsourced on a cross-border basis
The assessments conducted by the Eurofi working group show that there are no major technical obstacles at present for MCs to fulfill these conditions on a remote basis with modern communication means. Most administrative activities involve data processing that can be operationally conducted cross-border. In addition initial proposals were made to define a framework of responsibilities ensuring that investor protection is safeguarded in this context. These principles could be defined at Level I of the Directive and further detailed at Level II:

-The current responsibilities of the Management Company and the Depositary should remain unchanged
- Supervisory responsibilities should be allocated between the Fund regulator and the Management Company regulator with leadership given to the Fund regulator for matters regarding the Fund
-A framework should be defined for cooperation, arbitration and escalation mechanisms between supervisors, applicable to the authorization process and to the on-going monitoring of the fund3.

But a detailed operational analysis of the way administrative activities are conducted on a day-to-day basis shows that the current differences in local laws across EU countries and specific local requirements that impact administrative activities of the fund – eg NAV calculation or fund accounting with differing splits of responsibilities between the MC and the depositary, differing methods, delegation rules etc... - make the remote performance of some services and the maintenance of expertise more complex in a cross-border environment.

3 This should be facilitated by the rules for supervisory cooperation described in the UCITS IV proposal Investor Document and supervisory cooperation. On the other hand the Management Company Passport (MCP) concept has remained controversial particularly for contractual funds which are not legal entities (eg FCPs). The concept of the MCP already exists in the current UCITS III framework but is limited to corporate funds (eg SICAV which have a legal personality).

In July 2008 CESR was requested by the Commission to provide advice on remaining technical questions that need to be addressed when introducing a MCP. Eurofi and a working group composed of industry representatives from all parts of the value chain, ie asset managers, depositaries and administrative agents operating in different EU financial centers1, assessed during the first semester of 2008 the practical conditions for UCITS funds to receive services from a remote management company (MC) based in a foreign EU member state. Our evaluation has particularly focused on the administrative activities performed by the MC2 which are at the heart of the current debate evolving around investor protection and economic issues.

Our overall conclusion at this stage is that implementing a MCP is a feasible and economically attractive objective to improve the efficiency of the EU funds industry but should be implemented with a staged approach. We consider that conditions for Management Companies (MC) to operate cross-border could be significantly optimized in the short run with an adequate framework of responsibilities defined at Level I. MCs should in particular no longer be required to maintain a capitalized legal entity in the fund domicile to perform their activity which would lead to significant potential savings...

tags-label Tags : UCITS Directive, Management company, UCITS,
tags-label Type : Event Report
Session 01A Innovation in EU Funds type-docpdf type-doc168.9 Ko calendar-select05-02-2009
document Summarized Text :
Eurofi 2008 - Thursday 11/09/08 Session [1A] - TAKING INTO ACCOUNT INNOVATION IN THE EU INVESTMENT FUND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK: Keeping up with innovation in secured conditions through potential evolutions in the product or distribution framework of investment funds. The Panel Moderator: Marc Truchet, Senior fellow consultant, Eurofi Panellists: Niall Bohan, Head of Unit, Asset Management, DG Internal Market and Services, European Commission; Alain Leclair, Chairman, French Asset Management Association; Wolfgang Mansfeld, Member of the Executive Board, Union Asset Management Holding AG, Chaiman, BVI; Jean-Paul Mazoyer, General Management Committee Member in Charge of Development, Crédit Agricole Asset Management; Lisa Rabbe, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs International

tags-label Tags : UCITS Directive, Private placement, Non harmonised funds, UCITS, Competing products, Hedge funds,
tags-label Type : Compte-rendu
Investment funds Innovation Executive Summary type-docpdf type-doc119.8 Ko calendar-select11-09-2008
document Summarized Text :
Financial innovation is constant in the investment funds market, driven by the need for the industry to continue to ensure differentiation and find new sources of performance and revenue and by investor demand eg for new types of products less correlated with the stock exchange. Producers use different approaches to answer these needs: diversification of asset (eg new geographies or industrial sectors), new investment techniques or strategies (eg hedge funds with the objective to offer “absolute return” regardless of market conditions), new product concepts (eg guaranteed products or lifestyle funds for retail investors).

Local regulatory product frameworks have been evolving over time to accommodate these evolutions and needs. The EU regulatory framework also needs to keep pace with these evolutions to create a secure framework for the passportability of new products across European countries and to create innovative product labels that can be exported successfully out of Europe. The UCITS Directive, which is the only existing European product legislation for investment funds has evolved over time despite the constraints of the legislative process, since the UCITS directive was not drafted following the Lamfalussy principles.

The list of eligible assets allowed in the UCITS framework has been expanded over time to keep track with financial innovation. But the increasing volume of investment funds and investment products (eg certificates, notes…) that do not fall under the UCITS label and the high proportion of UCITS funds sold to institutional investors (25% of AuM according to the EU Commission) illustrate the limits of the present framework.

tags-label Tags : UCITS Directive, UCITS, Competing products, Hedge funds, Private equity funds,
tags-label Type : Executive summary
Investment funds Executive summary type-docpdf type-doc812.27 Ko calendar-select03-12-2007
document Summarized Text :
Optimising cross-border distribution and processing of investment funds in the EU

Eurofi conference: 4 December 2007 EU Parliament

Executive summary of the Eurofi initiative
1. Eurofi worked over the last 12 months with a representative group of fund industry leaders covering the different steps of the value chain1, to make proposals for improving cross-border fund distribution and processing in the EU: UCITS funds are a booming market in Europe:
2 • At the end of 2006 €7550 billion were managed through investment funds domiciled in the EU representing 34% of the worldwide fund industry. UCITS funds represented 79% of this total with €5900 billion managed through approximately 31000 funds.
• The market growth has been very strong for UCITS and sustained over the recent years: +80% growth between 2003 vs 2006 and a two-fold increase since 1998. Cross-border and third-party fund distribution is developing in the EU3:
• Cross-border funds (ie registered in 5 countries or more) represented around 30% of net asset flows in 2005 and intra-EU cross-border fund transactions are considered to represent around 20% of total transactions in the EU
• Major distributors evaluated that in 2006, 55% of their activity was third-party with 35% in foreign funds. Many operational and legal obstacles limit at present the efficiency of UCITS cross-border distribution and processing in the EU. These obstacles are becoming increasingly important to address as cross-border and open architecture distribution develop. Solving these inefficiencies could further enhance the competitiveness of the EU funds industry by reducing complexity and eliminating certain operational risks and extra-costs. The EU Commission has focused the proposals made in the White Paper on activities related to regulatory compliance, management company overhead and asset management which are considered to represent around 15% of total costs and on some components of distribution (total distribution costs were evaluated to represent 60% of total costs)4.

1 The following institutions were part of the Eurofi working group co-chaired by W. Klinz (MEP), E. Corley (Allianz GI) and A. Papiasse (BNP Paribas) : - Banks (including asset management and processing entities): BNP Paribas, Unicredit Group / Pioneer AM / Bank Austria Creditanstalt, Crédit Agricole, Fortis
- Asset managers: JPMorgan AM, Natixis Global Associates, Union Investment, HSBC IM, Allianz GI, DWS
-Processing service providers: Citigroup, Schroders, Société Générale, CACEIS, State Street,
- Stock exchanges: Euronext, Bourse de Luxembourg
2 Source : EFAMA statistics
3 Source FERI statistics and FERI 2006 European Fund Buyer Survey. A rising proportion of UCITS are also sold outside the EU (around 15% of net sales)
4 Source: CRA study September 2006 - average production and distribution costs for equity funds in a sample of EU markets . CRA estimated that total production and distribution costs amounted to ~150 bp on average in a sample of EU countries. The study did not cover the whole value chain (eg trading costs are not included). We were not able to verify the validity of these costs or the methodology used, but these results give an indication of the breakdown of costs.

Asset management costs comprise: cash management, research, asset allocation, operational asset management and dealing decisions. Processing and administration costs cover fund and client administration, regulatory compliance of the fund and management company overheads and systems. Distribution and marketing costs cover new product development, compensation to distributors, documentation, promotional activity…

tags-label Tags : UCITS Directive, Non harmonised funds, TA, Depositaries, UCITS, Automation, Standardisation,
tags-label Type : Executive summary
Asset Management (1)
Eurofi Report 5 Regulatory improvements Investment products type-docpdf type-doc178.53 Ko calendar-select06-02-2009
document Summarized Text :
The1current financial crisis and the alleged Madoff fraud have revealed risks and gaps in investment products regulation and supervision that need to be solved at the EU and possibly global regulatory levels with clarified and more harmonized responsibilities and liabilities along the fund value chain. Assessing further harmonisation opportunities of the framework of non UCITS investment products should also be a major objective for the Commission following a clarification of the needs of retail and institutional investors.

1. Clarifying responsibilities along the fund value chain and launching a harmonization effort across Europe are major priorities:

tags-label Tags : UCITS Directive, Asset Management, Non harmonised funds, TA, Depositaries, UCITS, Competing products, Risk management,
tags-label Type : Event Report
Private placement (1)
Session 01A Innovation in EU Funds type-docpdf type-doc168.9 Ko calendar-select05-02-2009
document Summarized Text :
Eurofi 2008 - Thursday 11/09/08 Session [1A] - TAKING INTO ACCOUNT INNOVATION IN THE EU INVESTMENT FUND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK: Keeping up with innovation in secured conditions through potential evolutions in the product or distribution framework of investment funds. The Panel Moderator: Marc Truchet, Senior fellow consultant, Eurofi Panellists: Niall Bohan, Head of Unit, Asset Management, DG Internal Market and Services, European Commission; Alain Leclair, Chairman, French Asset Management Association; Wolfgang Mansfeld, Member of the Executive Board, Union Asset Management Holding AG, Chaiman, BVI; Jean-Paul Mazoyer, General Management Committee Member in Charge of Development, Crédit Agricole Asset Management; Lisa Rabbe, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs International

tags-label Tags : UCITS Directive, Private placement, Non harmonised funds, UCITS, Competing products, Hedge funds,
tags-label Type : Compte-rendu
Non harmonised funds (5)
Eurofi Report 5 Regulatory improvements Investment products type-docpdf type-doc178.53 Ko calendar-select06-02-2009
document Summarized Text :
The1current financial crisis and the alleged Madoff fraud have revealed risks and gaps in investment products regulation and supervision that need to be solved at the EU and possibly global regulatory levels with clarified and more harmonized responsibilities and liabilities along the fund value chain. Assessing further harmonisation opportunities of the framework of non UCITS investment products should also be a major objective for the Commission following a clarification of the needs of retail and institutional investors.

1. Clarifying responsibilities along the fund value chain and launching a harmonization effort across Europe are major priorities:

tags-label Tags : UCITS Directive, Asset Management, Non harmonised funds, TA, Depositaries, UCITS, Competing products, Risk management,
tags-label Type : Event Report
Session 05B EU Priorities for UCTS & Securities Infrastructures type-docpdf type-doc169.35 Ko calendar-select09-11-2008
document Summarized Text :
Eurofi 2008 - Thursday 11/09/08 Session [5B] - EU PRIORITIES FOR INVESTMENT FUNDS AND EU SECURITIES INFRASTRUCTURES: Evolution of the UCITS regulatory framework, remaining challenges for securities infrastructures

The Panel
Moderators: Piia-Noora Kauppi, MEP, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, European Parliament; Wolf Klinz, MEP, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, European Parliament Panellists: Marc Raynaud, Global Head of Mutual Fund Distribution, BNP Paribas Investment Partners; David Wright, Deputy Director General, DG Internal Market and Services, European Commission Carlo Comporti, Secretary General, Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR); Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell, Member of the Executive Board, European Central Bank (ECB); Alain Closier, Global Head of Securities Services, Société Générale;

The Debate
The non-harmonised market was growing considerably faster than harmonised funds, commented Wolf Klinz, MEP, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, European Parliament, the moderator, opening the debate. UCITS funds were set up for the retail investor and yet a quarter of them were being sold to institutions. This suggested the need for more instruments to be eligible for inclusion, he said.
In addition, the brand had proved successful in places such as the Far East and Latin America, but competition within the European fund industry was hampering efforts to expand the brand even further. “With problems such as manual processing, we are unable to exploit economies of scale,” argued Mr Klinz.

tags-label Tags : Investment services and regulated markets (MiFID), Non harmonised funds, UCITS, Competing products, Custody, T2S, Collateral, Code of conduct, Consolidation,
tags-label Type : Event Report
AIFM type-docpdf type-doc141.32 Ko calendar-select07-04-2010
document Summarized Text :

Proposals regarding proportionality principles and the obligations of the depositary in the AIFM Directive

These proposals for adjustments to the Gauzès report on the AIFM Directive have been drafted by Eurofi with the input of a group of representative asset managers, custodians, valuators, prime brokers and insurance groups operating in the EU. Their objectives are to better take into account certain operational constraints and improve the allocation of responsibilities in the requirements of the Directive while maintaining its coherence and initial objectives.

The following players contributed to this initiative: Amundi Asset Management (formerly Crédit Agricole AM), AXA Investment Managers, The Bank of New York Mellon, BNP Paribas Investment Partners and Securities Services, CACEIS, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Fidelity International, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Hedge Fund Standard Board (HFSB), MidEuropa, Pioneer, Prudential, Société Générale and Union Investment.


tags-label Tags : Non harmonised funds, Open ended real estate funds, Depositaries, Hedge funds, Private equity funds,
tags-label Type : Compte-rendu
Session 01A Innovation in EU Funds type-docpdf type-doc168.9 Ko calendar-select05-02-2009
document Summarized Text :
Eurofi 2008 - Thursday 11/09/08 Session [1A] - TAKING INTO ACCOUNT INNOVATION IN THE EU INVESTMENT FUND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK: Keeping up with innovation in secured conditions through potential evolutions in the product or distribution framework of investment funds. The Panel Moderator: Marc Truchet, Senior fellow consultant, Eurofi Panellists: Niall Bohan, Head of Unit, Asset Management, DG Internal Market and Services, European Commission; Alain Leclair, Chairman, French Asset Management Association; Wolfgang Mansfeld, Member of the Executive Board, Union Asset Management Holding AG, Chaiman, BVI; Jean-Paul Mazoyer, General Management Committee Member in Charge of Development, Crédit Agricole Asset Management; Lisa Rabbe, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs International

tags-label Tags : UCITS Directive, Private placement, Non harmonised funds, UCITS, Competing products, Hedge funds,
tags-label Type : Compte-rendu
Investment funds Executive summary type-docpdf type-doc812.27 Ko calendar-select03-12-2007
document Summarized Text :
Optimising cross-border distribution and processing of investment funds in the EU

Eurofi conference: 4 December 2007 EU Parliament

Executive summary of the Eurofi initiative
1. Eurofi worked over the last 12 months with a representative group of fund industry leaders covering the different steps of the value chain1, to make proposals for improving cross-border fund distribution and processing in the EU: UCITS funds are a booming market in Europe:
2 • At the end of 2006 €7550 billion were managed through investment funds domiciled in the EU representing 34% of the worldwide fund industry. UCITS funds represented 79% of this total with €5900 billion managed through approximately 31000 funds.
• The market growth has been very strong for UCITS and sustained over the recent years: +80% growth between 2003 vs 2006 and a two-fold increase since 1998. Cross-border and third-party fund distribution is developing in the EU3:
• Cross-border funds (ie registered in 5 countries or more) represented around 30% of net asset flows in 2005 and intra-EU cross-border fund transactions are considered to represent around 20% of total transactions in the EU
• Major distributors evaluated that in 2006, 55% of their activity was third-party with 35% in foreign funds. Many operational and legal obstacles limit at present the efficiency of UCITS cross-border distribution and processing in the EU. These obstacles are becoming increasingly important to address as cross-border and open architecture distribution develop. Solving these inefficiencies could further enhance the competitiveness of the EU funds industry by reducing complexity and eliminating certain operational risks and extra-costs. The EU Commission has focused the proposals made in the White Paper on activities related to regulatory compliance, management company overhead and asset management which are considered to represent around 15% of total costs and on some components of distribution (total distribution costs were evaluated to represent 60% of total costs)4.

1 The following institutions were part of the Eurofi working group co-chaired by W. Klinz (MEP), E. Corley (Allianz GI) and A. Papiasse (BNP Paribas) : - Banks (including asset management and processing entities): BNP Paribas, Unicredit Group / Pioneer AM / Bank Austria Creditanstalt, Crédit Agricole, Fortis
- Asset managers: JPMorgan AM, Natixis Global Associates, Union Investment, HSBC IM, Allianz GI, DWS
-Processing service providers: Citigroup, Schroders, Société Générale, CACEIS, State Street,
- Stock exchanges: Euronext, Bourse de Luxembourg
2 Source : EFAMA statistics
3 Source FERI statistics and FERI 2006 European Fund Buyer Survey. A rising proportion of UCITS are also sold outside the EU (around 15% of net sales)
4 Source: CRA study September 2006 - average production and distribution costs for equity funds in a sample of EU markets . CRA estimated that total production and distribution costs amounted to ~150 bp on average in a sample of EU countries. The study did not cover the whole value chain (eg trading costs are not included). We were not able to verify the validity of these costs or the methodology used, but these results give an indication of the breakdown of costs.

Asset management costs comprise: cash management, research, asset allocation, operational asset management and dealing decisions. Processing and administration costs cover fund and client administration, regulatory compliance of the fund and management company overheads and systems. Distribution and marketing costs cover new product development, compensation to distributors, documentation, promotional activity…

tags-label Tags : UCITS Directive, Non harmonised funds, TA, Depositaries, UCITS, Automation, Standardisation,
tags-label Type : Executive summary
Open ended real estate funds (1)
AIFM type-docpdf type-doc141.32 Ko calendar-select07-04-2010
document Summarized Text :

Proposals regarding proportionality principles and the obligations of the depositary in the AIFM Directive

These proposals for adjustments to the Gauzès report on the AIFM Directive have been drafted by Eurofi with the input of a group of representative asset managers, custodians, valuators, prime brokers and insurance groups operating in the EU. Their objectives are to better take into account certain operational constraints and improve the allocation of responsibilities in the requirements of the Directive while maintaining its coherence and initial objectives.

The following players contributed to this initiative: Amundi Asset Management (formerly Crédit Agricole AM), AXA Investment Managers, The Bank of New York Mellon, BNP Paribas Investment Partners and Securities Services, CACEIS, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Fidelity International, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Hedge Fund Standard Board (HFSB), MidEuropa, Pioneer, Prudential, Société Générale and Union Investment.


tags-label Tags : Non harmonised funds, Open ended real estate funds, Depositaries, Hedge funds, Private equity funds,
tags-label Type : Compte-rendu
Management company (2)
EUROFI PRIORITIES FOR ECOFIN type-docpdf type-doc115.97 Ko calendar-select10-09-2008
document Summarized Text :
Eurofi, the dedicated think-tank for the integration of financial services in Europe, is organizing a conference on September 11 and 12 to discuss the proposals put forward by the financial industry at the ECOFIN, set against a global crisis with leaders facing new challenges.

This crisis shows that the supervision of cross-border financial groups must be adapted in order to factor in the rapid spillover of risks, the internationalization of their activities and the centralized organization of their financial management and strategy.
That is why Eurofi is proposing a series of pragmatic measures to improve the supervision of these groups and the prevention of crises, notably including:
- The establishment of colleges grouping the European supervisors concerned together, which would be given a similar mandate in order to ensure identical protection for all of the group’s European customers;
- A specific role entrusted to the supervisor from the home European country, ensuring that decisions relating to capital requirements and the organization of supervision can be taken quickly and effectively, and that information is immediately made available to all the other supervisors;
- The mission entrusted to the European supervisor committees (CEBS and CEIOPS), to facilitate the resolution of possible differences of views between supervisors from a given college and check that the conditions for fair competition between the financial institutions are brought about.

tags-label Tags : CEIOPS, Occupational Pensions, Solvency II directive, Microcredit, UCITS Directive, Management company, UCITS, Cross-border fund processing, Prudential rules, Accounting rules, CEBS, Regulation, Supervision,
tags-label Type : Event Report
UCITS Regulatory framework type-docpdf type-doc122.45 Ko calendar-select10-09-2008
document Summarized Text :
There is a strong agreement among industry stakeholders on the added value of the proposals made for reviewing the UCITS Directive (UCITS IV) ie streamlining of the notification process, fund mergers, pooling / master feeder techniques, Key Three main conditions indeed need to be fulfilled for a MC to manage UCITS funds on a remote basis:

- UCITS funds receiving services from a MC based abroad must continue to be managed and administered by the MC in compliance with the relevant rules of the UCITS domicile
- A clear definition of the respective responsibilities of the Fund regulator and of the MC regulator must be possible as well as cooperation mechanisms between regulators and interfaces between regulators, the MC and the depositary
-The conditions required for passporting MC collective portfolio services should generate sufficient economic benefits and not lead to regressions in Member States (MSs) where administrative activities can be widely outsourced on a cross-border basis
The assessments conducted by the Eurofi working group show that there are no major technical obstacles at present for MCs to fulfill these conditions on a remote basis with modern communication means. Most administrative activities involve data processing that can be operationally conducted cross-border. In addition initial proposals were made to define a framework of responsibilities ensuring that investor protection is safeguarded in this context. These principles could be defined at Level I of the Directive and further detailed at Level II:

-The current responsibilities of the Management Company and the Depositary should remain unchanged
- Supervisory responsibilities should be allocated between the Fund regulator and the Management Company regulator with leadership given to the Fund regulator for matters regarding the Fund
-A framework should be defined for cooperation, arbitration and escalation mechanisms between supervisors, applicable to the authorization process and to the on-going monitoring of the fund3.

But a detailed operational analysis of the way administrative activities are conducted on a day-to-day basis shows that the current differences in local laws across EU countries and specific local requirements that impact administrative activities of the fund – eg NAV calculation or fund accounting with differing splits of responsibilities between the MC and the depositary, differing methods, delegation rules etc... - make the remote performance of some services and the maintenance of expertise more complex in a cross-border environment.

3 This should be facilitated by the rules for supervisory cooperation described in the UCITS IV proposal Investor Document and supervisory cooperation. On the other hand the Management Company Passport (MCP) concept has remained controversial particularly for contractual funds which are not legal entities (eg FCPs). The concept of the MCP already exists in the current UCITS III framework but is limited to corporate funds (eg SICAV which have a legal personality).

In July 2008 CESR was requested by the Commission to provide advice on remaining technical questions that need to be addressed when introducing a MCP. Eurofi and a working group composed of industry representatives from all parts of the value chain, ie asset managers, depositaries and administrative agents operating in different EU financial centers1, assessed during the first semester of 2008 the practical conditions for UCITS funds to receive services from a remote management company (MC) based in a foreign EU member state. Our evaluation has particularly focused on the administrative activities performed by the MC2 which are at the heart of the current debate evolving around investor protection and economic issues.

Our overall conclusion at this stage is that implementing a MCP is a feasible and economically attractive objective to improve the efficiency of the EU funds industry but should be implemented with a staged approach. We consider that conditions for Management Companies (MC) to operate cross-border could be significantly optimized in the short run with an adequate framework of responsibilities defined at Level I. MCs should in particular no longer be required to maintain a capitalized legal entity in the fund domicile to perform their activity which would lead to significant potential savings...

tags-label Tags : UCITS Directive, Management company, UCITS,
tags-label Type : Event Report
TA (3)
Eurofi Report 5 Regulatory improvements Investment products type-docpdf type-doc178.53 Ko calendar-select06-02-2009
document Summarized Text :
The1current financial crisis and the alleged Madoff fraud have revealed risks and gaps in investment products regulation and supervision that need to be solved at the EU and possibly global regulatory levels with clarified and more harmonized responsibilities and liabilities along the fund value chain. Assessing further harmonisation opportunities of the framework of non UCITS investment products should also be a major objective for the Commission following a clarification of the needs of retail and institutional investors.

1. Clarifying responsibilities along the fund value chain and launching a harmonization effort across Europe are major priorities:

tags-label Tags : UCITS Directive, Asset Management, Non harmonised funds, TA, Depositaries, UCITS, Competing products, Risk management,
tags-label Type : Event Report
Ucits Processing type-docpdf type-doc131.43 Ko calendar-select11-09-2008
document Summarized Text :
Substantial progress is required in automation and standardization of all crossborder fund processing activities - order execution and settlement of transactions and commissions handling - to face up to increasing transaction volumes.

Investment funds are indeed a booming market in Europe and the volume of cross-border and third-party orders processed is developing strongly:
- At the end of 2006 e 7550 Bio were managed by approximately 31000 funds domiciled in the EU representing 34% of the worldwide fund industry and an 80% increase since 2003.
- Cross-border funds (ie registered in 5 countries or more) represented around 30% of net asset flows in 2005 and intra-EU cross-border fund transactions are considered to represent around 20% of total transactions in the EU.
- Third-party cross-border orders were evaluated to amount to around 27 Mio orders in 2006 for Luxembourg and Ireland – processed by TAs. Although progress is being made through many industry-driven initiatives, the level of automation and standardization of crossborder fund processing still needs to be optimized to improve efficiency, scalability and risk management with rising volumes:
- At present around 50% of cross-border orders are automated, mainly through relationships between large players and a progressive penetration of processing hubs, both supported by the Swift network. Many small and medium sized distributors in particular remain to be automated to reduce average costs and risks1.

tags-label Tags : TA, Cross-border fund processing, Automation, Standardisation,
tags-label Type : Event Report
Investment funds Executive summary type-docpdf type-doc812.27 Ko calendar-select03-12-2007
document Summarized Text :
Optimising cross-border distribution and processing of investment funds in the EU

Eurofi conference: 4 December 2007 EU Parliament

Executive summary of the Eurofi initiative
1. Eurofi worked over the last 12 months with a representative group of fund industry leaders covering the different steps of the value chain1, to make proposals for improving cross-border fund distribution and processing in the EU: UCITS funds are a booming market in Europe:
2 • At the end of 2006 €7550 billion were managed through investment funds domiciled in the EU representing 34% of the worldwide fund industry. UCITS funds represented 79% of this total with €5900 billion managed through approximately 31000 funds.
• The market growth has been very strong for UCITS and sustained over the recent years: +80% growth between 2003 vs 2006 and a two-fold increase since 1998. Cross-border and third-party fund distribution is developing in the EU3:
• Cross-border funds (ie registered in 5 countries or more) represented around 30% of net asset flows in 2005 and intra-EU cross-border fund transactions are considered to represent around 20% of total transactions in the EU
• Major distributors evaluated that in 2006, 55% of their activity was third-party with 35% in foreign funds. Many operational and legal obstacles limit at present the efficiency of UCITS cross-border distribution and processing in the EU. These obstacles are becoming increasingly important to address as cross-border and open architecture distribution develop. Solving these inefficiencies could further enhance the competitiveness of the EU funds industry by reducing complexity and eliminating certain operational risks and extra-costs. The EU Commission has focused the proposals made in the White Paper on activities related to regulatory compliance, management company overhead and asset management which are considered to represent around 15% of total costs and on some components of distribution (total distribution costs were evaluated to represent 60% of total costs)4.

1 The following institutions were part of the Eurofi working group co-chaired by W. Klinz (MEP), E. Corley (Allianz GI) and A. Papiasse (BNP Paribas) : - Banks (including asset management and processing entities): BNP Paribas, Unicredit Group / Pioneer AM / Bank Austria Creditanstalt, Crédit Agricole, Fortis
- Asset managers: JPMorgan AM, Natixis Global Associates, Union Investment, HSBC IM, Allianz GI, DWS
-Processing service providers: Citigroup, Schroders, Société Générale, CACEIS, State Street,
- Stock exchanges: Euronext, Bourse de Luxembourg
2 Source : EFAMA statistics
3 Source FERI statistics and FERI 2006 European Fund Buyer Survey. A rising proportion of UCITS are also sold outside the EU (around 15% of net sales)
4 Source: CRA study September 2006 - average production and distribution costs for equity funds in a sample of EU markets . CRA estimated that total production and distribution costs amounted to ~150 bp on average in a sample of EU countries. The study did not cover the whole value chain (eg trading costs are not included). We were not able to verify the validity of these costs or the methodology used, but these results give an indication of the breakdown of costs.

Asset management costs comprise: cash management, research, asset allocation, operational asset management and dealing decisions. Processing and administration costs cover fund and client administration, regulatory compliance of the fund and management company overheads and systems. Distribution and marketing costs cover new product development, compensation to distributors, documentation, promotional activity…

tags-label Tags : UCITS Directive, Non harmonised funds, TA, Depositaries, UCITS, Automation, Standardisation,
tags-label Type : Executive summary
Depositaries (3)
AIFM type-docpdf type-doc141.32 Ko calendar-select07-04-2010
document Summarized Text :

Proposals regarding proportionality principles and the obligations of the depositary in the AIFM Directive

These proposals for adjustments to the Gauzès report on the AIFM Directive have been drafted by Eurofi with the input of a group of representative asset managers, custodians, valuators, prime brokers and insurance groups operating in the EU. Their objectives are to better take into account certain operational constraints and improve the allocation of responsibilities in the requirements of the Directive while maintaining its coherence and initial objectives.

The following players contributed to this initiative: Amundi Asset Management (formerly Crédit Agricole AM), AXA Investment Managers, The Bank of New York Mellon, BNP Paribas Investment Partners and Securities Services, CACEIS, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Fidelity International, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Hedge Fund Standard Board (HFSB), MidEuropa, Pioneer, Prudential, Société Générale and Union Investment.


tags-label Tags : Non harmonised funds, Open ended real estate funds, Depositaries, Hedge funds, Private equity funds,
tags-label Type : Compte-rendu
Eurofi Report 5 Regulatory improvements Investment products type-docpdf type-doc178.53 Ko calendar-select06-02-2009
document Summarized Text :
The1current financial crisis and the alleged Madoff fraud have revealed risks and gaps in investment products regulation and supervision that need to be solved at the EU and possibly global regulatory levels with clarified and more harmonized responsibilities and liabilities along the fund value chain. Assessing further harmonisation opportunities of the framework of non UCITS investment products should also be a major objective for the Commission following a clarification of the needs of retail and institutional investors.

1. Clarifying responsibilities along the fund value chain and launching a harmonization effort across Europe are major priorities:

tags-label Tags : UCITS Directive, Asset Management, Non harmonised funds, TA, Depositaries, UCITS, Competing products, Risk management,
tags-label Type : Event Report
Investment funds Executive summary type-docpdf type-doc812.27 Ko calendar-select03-12-2007
document Summarized Text :
Optimising cross-border distribution and processing of investment funds in the EU

Eurofi conference: 4 December 2007 EU Parliament

Executive summary of the Eurofi initiative
1. Eurofi worked over the last 12 months with a representative group of fund industry leaders covering the different steps of the value chain1, to make proposals for improving cross-border fund distribution and processing in the EU: UCITS funds are a booming market in Europe:
2 • At the end of 2006 €7550 billion were managed through investment funds domiciled in the EU representing 34% of the worldwide fund industry. UCITS funds represented 79% of this total with €5900 billion managed through approximately 31000 funds.
• The market growth has been very strong for UCITS and sustained over the recent years: +80% growth between 2003 vs 2006 and a two-fold increase since 1998. Cross-border and third-party fund distribution is developing in the EU3:
• Cross-border funds (ie registered in 5 countries or more) represented around 30% of net asset flows in 2005 and intra-EU cross-border fund transactions are considered to represent around 20% of total transactions in the EU
• Major distributors evaluated that in 2006, 55% of their activity was third-party with 35% in foreign funds. Many operational and legal obstacles limit at present the efficiency of UCITS cross-border distribution and processing in the EU. These obstacles are becoming increasingly important to address as cross-border and open architecture distribution develop. Solving these inefficiencies could further enhance the competitiveness of the EU funds industry by reducing complexity and eliminating certain operational risks and extra-costs. The EU Commission has focused the proposals made in the White Paper on activities related to regulatory compliance, management company overhead and asset management which are considered to represent around 15% of total costs and on some components of distribution (total distribution costs were evaluated to represent 60% of total costs)4.

1 The following institutions were part of the Eurofi working group co-chaired by W. Klinz (MEP), E. Corley (Allianz GI) and A. Papiasse (BNP Paribas) : - Banks (including asset management and processing entities): BNP Paribas, Unicredit Group / Pioneer AM / Bank Austria Creditanstalt, Crédit Agricole, Fortis
- Asset managers: JPMorgan AM, Natixis Global Associates, Union Investment, HSBC IM, Allianz GI, DWS
-Processing service providers: Citigroup, Schroders, Société Générale, CACEIS, State Street,
- Stock exchanges: Euronext, Bourse de Luxembourg
2 Source : EFAMA statistics
3 Source FERI statistics and FERI 2006 European Fund Buyer Survey. A rising proportion of UCITS are also sold outside the EU (around 15% of net sales)
4 Source: CRA study September 2006 - average production and distribution costs for equity funds in a sample of EU markets . CRA estimated that total production and distribution costs amounted to ~150 bp on average in a sample of EU countries. The study did not cover the whole value chain (eg trading costs are not included). We were not able to verify the validity of these costs or the methodology used, but these results give an indication of the breakdown of costs.

Asset management costs comprise: cash management, research, asset allocation, operational asset management and dealing decisions. Processing and administration costs cover fund and client administration, regulatory compliance of the fund and management company overheads and systems. Distribution and marketing costs cover new product development, compensation to distributors, documentation, promotional activity…

tags-label Tags : UCITS Directive, Non harmonised funds, TA, Depositaries, UCITS, Automation, Standardisation,
tags-label Type : Executive summary
UCITS (7)
Eurofi Report 5 Regulatory improvements Investment products type-docpdf type-doc178.53 Ko calendar-select06-02-2009
document Summarized Text :
The1current financial crisis and the alleged Madoff fraud have revealed risks and gaps in investment products regulation and supervision that need to be solved at the EU and possibly global regulatory levels with clarified and more harmonized responsibilities and liabilities along the fund value chain. Assessing further harmonisation opportunities of the framework of non UCITS investment products should also be a major objective for the Commission following a clarification of the needs of retail and institutional investors.

1. Clarifying responsibilities along the fund value chain and launching a harmonization effort across Europe are major priorities:

tags-label Tags : UCITS Directive, Asset Management, Non harmonised funds, TA, Depositaries, UCITS, Competing products, Risk management,
tags-label Type : Event Report
Session 05B EU Priorities for UCTS & Securities Infrastructures type-docpdf type-doc169.35 Ko calendar-select09-11-2008
document Summarized Text :
Eurofi 2008 - Thursday 11/09/08 Session [5B] - EU PRIORITIES FOR INVESTMENT FUNDS AND EU SECURITIES INFRASTRUCTURES: Evolution of the UCITS regulatory framework, remaining challenges for securities infrastructures

The Panel
Moderators: Piia-Noora Kauppi, MEP, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, European Parliament; Wolf Klinz, MEP, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, European Parliament Panellists: Marc Raynaud, Global Head of Mutual Fund Distribution, BNP Paribas Investment Partners; David Wright, Deputy Director General, DG Internal Market and Services, European Commission Carlo Comporti, Secretary General, Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR); Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell, Member of the Executive Board, European Central Bank (ECB); Alain Closier, Global Head of Securities Services, Société Générale;

The Debate
The non-harmonised market was growing considerably faster than harmonised funds, commented Wolf Klinz, MEP, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, European Parliament, the moderator, opening the debate. UCITS funds were set up for the retail investor and yet a quarter of them were being sold to institutions. This suggested the need for more instruments to be eligible for inclusion, he said.
In addition, the brand had proved successful in places such as the Far East and Latin America, but competition within the European fund industry was hampering efforts to expand the brand even further. “With problems such as manual processing, we are unable to exploit economies of scale,” argued Mr Klinz.

tags-label Tags : Investment services and regulated markets (MiFID), Non harmonised funds, UCITS, Competing products, Custody, T2S, Collateral, Code of conduct, Consolidation,
tags-label Type : Event Report
EUROFI PRIORITIES FOR ECOFIN type-docpdf type-doc115.97 Ko calendar-select10-09-2008
document Summarized Text :
Eurofi, the dedicated think-tank for the integration of financial services in Europe, is organizing a conference on September 11 and 12 to discuss the proposals put forward by the financial industry at the ECOFIN, set against a global crisis with leaders facing new challenges.

This crisis shows that the supervision of cross-border financial groups must be adapted in order to factor in the rapid spillover of risks, the internationalization of their activities and the centralized organization of their financial management and strategy.
That is why Eurofi is proposing a series of pragmatic measures to improve the supervision of these groups and the prevention of crises, notably including:
- The establishment of colleges grouping the European supervisors concerned together, which would be given a similar mandate in order to ensure identical protection for all of the group’s European customers;
- A specific role entrusted to the supervisor from the home European country, ensuring that decisions relating to capital requirements and the organization of supervision can be taken quickly and effectively, and that information is immediately made available to all the other supervisors;
- The mission entrusted to the European supervisor committees (CEBS and CEIOPS), to facilitate the resolution of possible differences of views between supervisors from a given college and check that the conditions for fair competition between the financial institutions are brought about.

tags-label Tags : CEIOPS, Occupational Pensions, Solvency II directive, Microcredit, UCITS Directive, Management company, UCITS, Cross-border fund processing, Prudential rules, Accounting rules, CEBS, Regulation, Supervision,
tags-label Type : Event Report
UCITS Regulatory framework type-docpdf type-doc122.45 Ko calendar-select10-09-2008
document Summarized Text :
There is a strong agreement among industry stakeholders on the added value of the proposals made for reviewing the UCITS Directive (UCITS IV) ie streamlining of the notification process, fund mergers, pooling / master feeder techniques, Key Three main conditions indeed need to be fulfilled for a MC to manage UCITS funds on a remote basis:

- UCITS funds receiving services from a MC based abroad must continue to be managed and administered by the MC in compliance with the relevant rules of the UCITS domicile
- A clear definition of the respective responsibilities of the Fund regulator and of the MC regulator must be possible as well as cooperation mechanisms between regulators and interfaces between regulators, the MC and the depositary
-The conditions required for passporting MC collective portfolio services should generate sufficient economic benefits and not lead to regressions in Member States (MSs) where administrative activities can be widely outsourced on a cross-border basis
The assessments conducted by the Eurofi working group show that there are no major technical obstacles at present for MCs to fulfill these conditions on a remote basis with modern communication means. Most administrative activities involve data processing that can be operationally conducted cross-border. In addition initial proposals were made to define a framework of responsibilities ensuring that investor protection is safeguarded in this context. These principles could be defined at Level I of the Directive and further detailed at Level II:

-The current responsibilities of the Management Company and the Depositary should remain unchanged
- Supervisory responsibilities should be allocated between the Fund regulator and the Management Company regulator with leadership given to the Fund regulator for matters regarding the Fund
-A framework should be defined for cooperation, arbitration and escalation mechanisms between supervisors, applicable to the authorization process and to the on-going monitoring of the fund3.

But a detailed operational analysis of the way administrative activities are conducted on a day-to-day basis shows that the current differences in local laws across EU countries and specific local requirements that impact administrative activities of the fund – eg NAV calculation or fund accounting with differing splits of responsibilities between the MC and the depositary, differing methods, delegation rules etc... - make the remote performance of some services and the maintenance of expertise more complex in a cross-border environment.

3 This should be facilitated by the rules for supervisory cooperation described in the UCITS IV proposal Investor Document and supervisory cooperation. On the other hand the Management Company Passport (MCP) concept has remained controversial particularly for contractual funds which are not legal entities (eg FCPs). The concept of the MCP already exists in the current UCITS III framework but is limited to corporate funds (eg SICAV which have a legal personality).

In July 2008 CESR was requested by the Commission to provide advice on remaining technical questions that need to be addressed when introducing a MCP. Eurofi and a working group composed of industry representatives from all parts of the value chain, ie asset managers, depositaries and administrative agents operating in different EU financial centers1, assessed during the first semester of 2008 the practical conditions for UCITS funds to receive services from a remote management company (MC) based in a foreign EU member state. Our evaluation has particularly focused on the administrative activities performed by the MC2 which are at the heart of the current debate evolving around investor protection and economic issues.

Our overall conclusion at this stage is that implementing a MCP is a feasible and economically attractive objective to improve the efficiency of the EU funds industry but should be implemented with a staged approach. We consider that conditions for Management Companies (MC) to operate cross-border could be significantly optimized in the short run with an adequate framework of responsibilities defined at Level I. MCs should in particular no longer be required to maintain a capitalized legal entity in the fund domicile to perform their activity which would lead to significant potential savings...

tags-label Tags : UCITS Directive, Management company, UCITS,
tags-label Type : Event Report
Session 01A Innovation in EU Funds type-docpdf type-doc168.9 Ko calendar-select05-02-2009
document Summarized Text :
Eurofi 2008 - Thursday 11/09/08 Session [1A] - TAKING INTO ACCOUNT INNOVATION IN THE EU INVESTMENT FUND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK: Keeping up with innovation in secured conditions through potential evolutions in the product or distribution framework of investment funds. The Panel Moderator: Marc Truchet, Senior fellow consultant, Eurofi Panellists: Niall Bohan, Head of Unit, Asset Management, DG Internal Market and Services, European Commission; Alain Leclair, Chairman, French Asset Management Association; Wolfgang Mansfeld, Member of the Executive Board, Union Asset Management Holding AG, Chaiman, BVI; Jean-Paul Mazoyer, General Management Committee Member in Charge of Development, Crédit Agricole Asset Management; Lisa Rabbe, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs International

tags-label Tags : UCITS Directive, Private placement, Non harmonised funds, UCITS, Competing products, Hedge funds,
tags-label Type : Compte-rendu
Investment funds Innovation Executive Summary type-docpdf type-doc119.8 Ko calendar-select11-09-2008
document Summarized Text :
Financial innovation is constant in the investment funds market, driven by the need for the industry to continue to ensure differentiation and find new sources of performance and revenue and by investor demand eg for new types of products less correlated with the stock exchange. Producers use different approaches to answer these needs: diversification of asset (eg new geographies or industrial sectors), new investment techniques or strategies (eg hedge funds with the objective to offer “absolute return” regardless of market conditions), new product concepts (eg guaranteed products or lifestyle funds for retail investors).

Local regulatory product frameworks have been evolving over time to accommodate these evolutions and needs. The EU regulatory framework also needs to keep pace with these evolutions to create a secure framework for the passportability of new products across European countries and to create innovative product labels that can be exported successfully out of Europe. The UCITS Directive, which is the only existing European product legislation for investment funds has evolved over time despite the constraints of the legislative process, since the UCITS directive was not drafted following the Lamfalussy principles.

The list of eligible assets allowed in the UCITS framework has been expanded over time to keep track with financial innovation. But the increasing volume of investment funds and investment products (eg certificates, notes…) that do not fall under the UCITS label and the high proportion of UCITS funds sold to institutional investors (25% of AuM according to the EU Commission) illustrate the limits of the present framework.

tags-label Tags : UCITS Directive, UCITS, Competing products, Hedge funds, Private equity funds,
tags-label Type : Executive summary
Investment funds Executive summary type-docpdf type-doc812.27 Ko calendar-select03-12-2007
document Summarized Text :
Optimising cross-border distribution and processing of investment funds in the EU

Eurofi conference: 4 December 2007 EU Parliament

Executive summary of the Eurofi initiative
1. Eurofi worked over the last 12 months with a representative group of fund industry leaders covering the different steps of the value chain1, to make proposals for improving cross-border fund distribution and processing in the EU: UCITS funds are a booming market in Europe:
2 • At the end of 2006 €7550 billion were managed through investment funds domiciled in the EU representing 34% of the worldwide fund industry. UCITS funds represented 79% of this total with €5900 billion managed through approximately 31000 funds.
• The market growth has been very strong for UCITS and sustained over the recent years: +80% growth between 2003 vs 2006 and a two-fold increase since 1998. Cross-border and third-party fund distribution is developing in the EU3:
• Cross-border funds (ie registered in 5 countries or more) represented around 30% of net asset flows in 2005 and intra-EU cross-border fund transactions are considered to represent around 20% of total transactions in the EU
• Major distributors evaluated that in 2006, 55% of their activity was third-party with 35% in foreign funds. Many operational and legal obstacles limit at present the efficiency of UCITS cross-border distribution and processing in the EU. These obstacles are becoming increasingly important to address as cross-border and open architecture distribution develop. Solving these inefficiencies could further enhance the competitiveness of the EU funds industry by reducing complexity and eliminating certain operational risks and extra-costs. The EU Commission has focused the proposals made in the White Paper on activities related to regulatory compliance, management company overhead and asset management which are considered to represent around 15% of total costs and on some components of distribution (total distribution costs were evaluated to represent 60% of total costs)4.

1 The following institutions were part of the Eurofi working group co-chaired by W. Klinz (MEP), E. Corley (Allianz GI) and A. Papiasse (BNP Paribas) : - Banks (including asset management and processing entities): BNP Paribas, Unicredit Group / Pioneer AM / Bank Austria Creditanstalt, Crédit Agricole, Fortis
- Asset managers: JPMorgan AM, Natixis Global Associates, Union Investment, HSBC IM, Allianz GI, DWS
-Processing service providers: Citigroup, Schroders, Société Générale, CACEIS, State Street,
- Stock exchanges: Euronext, Bourse de Luxembourg
2 Source : EFAMA statistics
3 Source FERI statistics and FERI 2006 European Fund Buyer Survey. A rising proportion of UCITS are also sold outside the EU (around 15% of net sales)
4 Source: CRA study September 2006 - average production and distribution costs for equity funds in a sample of EU markets . CRA estimated that total production and distribution costs amounted to ~150 bp on average in a sample of EU countries. The study did not cover the whole value chain (eg trading costs are not included). We were not able to verify the validity of these costs or the methodology used, but these results give an indication of the breakdown of costs.

Asset management costs comprise: cash management, research, asset allocation, operational asset management and dealing decisions. Processing and administration costs cover fund and client administration, regulatory compliance of the fund and management company overheads and systems. Distribution and marketing costs cover new product development, compensation to distributors, documentation, promotional activity…

tags-label Tags : UCITS Directive, Non harmonised funds, TA, Depositaries, UCITS, Automation, Standardisation,
tags-label Type : Executive summary
Competing products (4)
Eurofi Report 5 Regulatory improvements Investment products type-docpdf type-doc178.53 Ko calendar-select06-02-2009
document Summarized Text :
The1current financial crisis and the alleged Madoff fraud have revealed risks and gaps in investment products regulation and supervision that need to be solved at the EU and possibly global regulatory levels with clarified and more harmonized responsibilities and liabilities along the fund value chain. Assessing further harmonisation opportunities of the framework of non UCITS investment products should also be a major objective for the Commission following a clarification of the needs of retail and institutional investors.

1. Clarifying responsibilities along the fund value chain and launching a harmonization effort across Europe are major priorities:

tags-label Tags : UCITS Directive, Asset Management, Non harmonised funds, TA, Depositaries, UCITS, Competing products, Risk management,
tags-label Type : Event Report
Session 05B EU Priorities for UCTS & Securities Infrastructures type-docpdf type-doc169.35 Ko calendar-select09-11-2008
document Summarized Text :
Eurofi 2008 - Thursday 11/09/08 Session [5B] - EU PRIORITIES FOR INVESTMENT FUNDS AND EU SECURITIES INFRASTRUCTURES: Evolution of the UCITS regulatory framework, remaining challenges for securities infrastructures

The Panel
Moderators: Piia-Noora Kauppi, MEP, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, European Parliament; Wolf Klinz, MEP, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, European Parliament Panellists: Marc Raynaud, Global Head of Mutual Fund Distribution, BNP Paribas Investment Partners; David Wright, Deputy Director General, DG Internal Market and Services, European Commission Carlo Comporti, Secretary General, Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR); Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell, Member of the Executive Board, European Central Bank (ECB); Alain Closier, Global Head of Securities Services, Société Générale;

The Debate
The non-harmonised market was growing considerably faster than harmonised funds, commented Wolf Klinz, MEP, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, European Parliament, the moderator, opening the debate. UCITS funds were set up for the retail investor and yet a quarter of them were being sold to institutions. This suggested the need for more instruments to be eligible for inclusion, he said.
In addition, the brand had proved successful in places such as the Far East and Latin America, but competition within the European fund industry was hampering efforts to expand the brand even further. “With problems such as manual processing, we are unable to exploit economies of scale,” argued Mr Klinz.

tags-label Tags : Investment services and regulated markets (MiFID), Non harmonised funds, UCITS, Competing products, Custody, T2S, Collateral, Code of conduct, Consolidation,
tags-label Type : Event Report
Session 01A Innovation in EU Funds type-docpdf type-doc168.9 Ko calendar-select05-02-2009
document Summarized Text :
Eurofi 2008 - Thursday 11/09/08 Session [1A] - TAKING INTO ACCOUNT INNOVATION IN THE EU INVESTMENT FUND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK: Keeping up with innovation in secured conditions through potential evolutions in the product or distribution framework of investment funds. The Panel Moderator: Marc Truchet, Senior fellow consultant, Eurofi Panellists: Niall Bohan, Head of Unit, Asset Management, DG Internal Market and Services, European Commission; Alain Leclair, Chairman, French Asset Management Association; Wolfgang Mansfeld, Member of the Executive Board, Union Asset Management Holding AG, Chaiman, BVI; Jean-Paul Mazoyer, General Management Committee Member in Charge of Development, Crédit Agricole Asset Management; Lisa Rabbe, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs International

tags-label Tags : UCITS Directive, Private placement, Non harmonised funds, UCITS, Competing products, Hedge funds,
tags-label Type : Compte-rendu
Investment funds Innovation Executive Summary type-docpdf type-doc119.8 Ko calendar-select11-09-2008
document Summarized Text :
Financial innovation is constant in the investment funds market, driven by the need for the industry to continue to ensure differentiation and find new sources of performance and revenue and by investor demand eg for new types of products less correlated with the stock exchange. Producers use different approaches to answer these needs: diversification of asset (eg new geographies or industrial sectors), new investment techniques or strategies (eg hedge funds with the objective to offer “absolute return” regardless of market conditions), new product concepts (eg guaranteed products or lifestyle funds for retail investors).

Local regulatory product frameworks have been evolving over time to accommodate these evolutions and needs. The EU regulatory framework also needs to keep pace with these evolutions to create a secure framework for the passportability of new products across European countries and to create innovative product labels that can be exported successfully out of Europe. The UCITS Directive, which is the only existing European product legislation for investment funds has evolved over time despite the constraints of the legislative process, since the UCITS directive was not drafted following the Lamfalussy principles.

The list of eligible assets allowed in the UCITS framework has been expanded over time to keep track with financial innovation. But the increasing volume of investment funds and investment products (eg certificates, notes…) that do not fall under the UCITS label and the high proportion of UCITS funds sold to institutional investors (25% of AuM according to the EU Commission) illustrate the limits of the present framework.

tags-label Tags : UCITS Directive, UCITS, Competing products, Hedge funds, Private equity funds,
tags-label Type : Executive summary
Hedge funds (4)
AIFM type-docpdf type-doc141.32 Ko calendar-select07-04-2010
document Summarized Text :

Proposals regarding proportionality principles and the obligations of the depositary in the AIFM Directive

These proposals for adjustments to the Gauzès report on the AIFM Directive have been drafted by Eurofi with the input of a group of representative asset managers, custodians, valuators, prime brokers and insurance groups operating in the EU. Their objectives are to better take into account certain operational constraints and improve the allocation of responsibilities in the requirements of the Directive while maintaining its coherence and initial objectives.

The following players contributed to this initiative: Amundi Asset Management (formerly Crédit Agricole AM), AXA Investment Managers, The Bank of New York Mellon, BNP Paribas Investment Partners and Securities Services, CACEIS, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Fidelity International, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Hedge Fund Standard Board (HFSB), MidEuropa, Pioneer, Prudential, Société Générale and Union Investment.


tags-label Tags : Non harmonised funds, Open ended real estate funds, Depositaries, Hedge funds, Private equity funds,
tags-label Type : Compte-rendu
Session 01A Innovation in EU Funds type-docpdf type-doc168.9 Ko calendar-select05-02-2009
document Summarized Text :
Eurofi 2008 - Thursday 11/09/08 Session [1A] - TAKING INTO ACCOUNT INNOVATION IN THE EU INVESTMENT FUND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK: Keeping up with innovation in secured conditions through potential evolutions in the product or distribution framework of investment funds. The Panel Moderator: Marc Truchet, Senior fellow consultant, Eurofi Panellists: Niall Bohan, Head of Unit, Asset Management, DG Internal Market and Services, European Commission; Alain Leclair, Chairman, French Asset Management Association; Wolfgang Mansfeld, Member of the Executive Board, Union Asset Management Holding AG, Chaiman, BVI; Jean-Paul Mazoyer, General Management Committee Member in Charge of Development, Crédit Agricole Asset Management; Lisa Rabbe, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs International

tags-label Tags : UCITS Directive, Private placement, Non harmonised funds, UCITS, Competing products, Hedge funds,
tags-label Type : Compte-rendu
Session 06 Learning from the Financial Crisis type-docpdf type-doc260.58 Ko calendar-select09-11-2008
document Summarized Text :
Eurofi 2008 - Thursday 11/09/08 Session [6] - LEARNING FROM THE FINANCIAL CRISIS: KEY DRIVERS AND EU INSTITUTIONS INITIATIVES for reducing procyclical effects; For an effective surveillance of off-balance sheet risks; For an appropriate setting of the banks’ amount of prudential own funds; For providing reliable information to investors (rating agencies, market information…)

The Panel
Moderator: Jacques de Larosière, Co-President, Eurofi Panellists: Joaquín Almunia, EU Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Fernando Teixeira dos Santos, Portuguese Minister of State and for Finance Dominique Hoenn, Senior Adviser, BNP Paribas Daniel Daianu, MEP, Committee on Budgets, European Parliament Deven Sharma, President, Standard & Poor’s Nout Wellink, Governor, De Nederlandsche Bank and Chairman of the Basel Committee Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, Former Italian Minister of the Economy and Finance

The Debate
Joaquín Almunia, EU Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs said the main question was how to restore stability in our economies after more than one year of turmoil. “This turmoil has posed serious challenges to the financial industry and our economies. The experience has been instructive, but after more than one year of turbulence, we now have to turn lessons into action.” The European Union had not been passive. It acted quickly last autumn, adopting a road map of policy actions covering transparency, valuations, supervision and market function, including the regulatory system.

tags-label Tags : Procyclicality, Transparency, Rating agencies, Hedge funds, Prudential rules, Crisis,
tags-label Type : Event Report
Investment funds Innovation Executive Summary type-docpdf type-doc119.8 Ko calendar-select11-09-2008
document Summarized Text :
Financial innovation is constant in the investment funds market, driven by the need for the industry to continue to ensure differentiation and find new sources of performance and revenue and by investor demand eg for new types of products less correlated with the stock exchange. Producers use different approaches to answer these needs: diversification of asset (eg new geographies or industrial sectors), new investment techniques or strategies (eg hedge funds with the objective to offer “absolute return” regardless of market conditions), new product concepts (eg guaranteed products or lifestyle funds for retail investors).

Local regulatory product frameworks have been evolving over time to accommodate these evolutions and needs. The EU regulatory framework also needs to keep pace with these evolutions to create a secure framework for the passportability of new products across European countries and to create innovative product labels that can be exported successfully out of Europe. The UCITS Directive, which is the only existing European product legislation for investment funds has evolved over time despite the constraints of the legislative process, since the UCITS directive was not drafted following the Lamfalussy principles.

The list of eligible assets allowed in the UCITS framework has been expanded over time to keep track with financial innovation. But the increasing volume of investment funds and investment products (eg certificates, notes…) that do not fall under the UCITS label and the high proportion of UCITS funds sold to institutional investors (25% of AuM according to the EU Commission) illustrate the limits of the present framework.

tags-label Tags : UCITS Directive, UCITS, Competing products, Hedge funds, Private equity funds,
tags-label Type : Executive summary
Private equity funds (2)
AIFM type-docpdf type-doc141.32 Ko calendar-select07-04-2010
document Summarized Text :

Proposals regarding proportionality principles and the obligations of the depositary in the AIFM Directive

These proposals for adjustments to the Gauzès report on the AIFM Directive have been drafted by Eurofi with the input of a group of representative asset managers, custodians, valuators, prime brokers and insurance groups operating in the EU. Their objectives are to better take into account certain operational constraints and improve the allocation of responsibilities in the requirements of the Directive while maintaining its coherence and initial objectives.

The following players contributed to this initiative: Amundi Asset Management (formerly Crédit Agricole AM), AXA Investment Managers, The Bank of New York Mellon, BNP Paribas Investment Partners and Securities Services, CACEIS, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Fidelity International, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Hedge Fund Standard Board (HFSB), MidEuropa, Pioneer, Prudential, Société Générale and Union Investment.


tags-label Tags : Non harmonised funds, Open ended real estate funds, Depositaries, Hedge funds, Private equity funds,
tags-label Type : Compte-rendu
Investment funds Innovation Executive Summary type-docpdf type-doc119.8 Ko calendar-select11-09-2008
document Summarized Text :
Financial innovation is constant in the investment funds market, driven by the need for the industry to continue to ensure differentiation and find new sources of performance and revenue and by investor demand eg for new types of products less correlated with the stock exchange. Producers use different approaches to answer these needs: diversification of asset (eg new geographies or industrial sectors), new investment techniques or strategies (eg hedge funds with the objective to offer “absolute return” regardless of market conditions), new product concepts (eg guaranteed products or lifestyle funds for retail investors).

Local regulatory product frameworks have been evolving over time to accommodate these evolutions and needs. The EU regulatory framework also needs to keep pace with these evolutions to create a secure framework for the passportability of new products across European countries and to create innovative product labels that can be exported successfully out of Europe. The UCITS Directive, which is the only existing European product legislation for investment funds has evolved over time despite the constraints of the legislative process, since the UCITS directive was not drafted following the Lamfalussy principles.

The list of eligible assets allowed in the UCITS framework has been expanded over time to keep track with financial innovation. But the increasing volume of investment funds and investment products (eg certificates, notes…) that do not fall under the UCITS label and the high proportion of UCITS funds sold to institutional investors (25% of AuM according to the EU Commission) illustrate the limits of the present framework.

tags-label Tags : UCITS Directive, UCITS, Competing products, Hedge funds, Private equity funds,
tags-label Type : Executive summary
Cross-border fund processing (3)
Session 04B Cross-Border Fund Processing in the EU type-docpdf type-doc199.59 Ko calendar-select09-11-2008
document Summarized Text :
Eurofi 08 - Thursday 11/09/08: Session [4A] IMPROVING CROSS-BORDER FUND PROCESSING IN THE EU: Towards an industry roadmap for optimising cross-border processing and proposals for monitoring the progress.
The Panel
Moderator: Wolf Klinz, MEP, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, European Parliament Panellists: Ivan Nicora, Director, Head of Funds Department, Product Management, Euroclear; Marc Raynaud, Global Head of Mutual Fund Distribution, BNP Paribas Investment Partners; Josée-Lynda Denis, Vice-President, Global Fund Services, The Bank of New York Mellon; Wolfgang Mansfeld, Member of the Executive Board, Union Asset Management Holding; Niall Bohan, Head of Unit, Asset Management, DG Internal Market and Services, European Commission; Bruno Prigent, Head of Investors Securities Services, Société Générale; Dominique Valschaerts, Member of the Executive Committee, Luxembourg Stock Exchange

The Debate
Wolf Klinz, MEP, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, European Parliament, prefaced the session by saying as a liberal he preferred not to introduce any more regulation, but to let the industry regulate itself. However, he acknowledged that little or no progress had been made on fund processing over the previous year, despite working groups at Efama and Eurofi having addressed the issue. “The fact is, 50 per cent of processing is still done manually, which is still too high,” Mr Klinz said.

tags-label Tags : Cross-border fund processing, Automation, Standardisation,
tags-label Type : Event Report
Ucits Processing type-docpdf type-doc131.43 Ko calendar-select11-09-2008
document Summarized Text :
Substantial progress is required in automation and standardization of all crossborder fund processing activities - order execution and settlement of transactions and commissions handling - to face up to increasing transaction volumes.

Investment funds are indeed a booming market in Europe and the volume of cross-border and third-party orders processed is developing strongly:
- At the end of 2006 e 7550 Bio were managed by approximately 31000 funds domiciled in the EU representing 34% of the worldwide fund industry and an 80% increase since 2003.
- Cross-border funds (ie registered in 5 countries or more) represented around 30% of net asset flows in 2005 and intra-EU cross-border fund transactions are considered to represent around 20% of total transactions in the EU.
- Third-party cross-border orders were evaluated to amount to around 27 Mio orders in 2006 for Luxembourg and Ireland – processed by TAs. Although progress is being made through many industry-driven initiatives, the level of automation and standardization of crossborder fund processing still needs to be optimized to improve efficiency, scalability and risk management with rising volumes:
- At present around 50% of cross-border orders are automated, mainly through relationships between large players and a progressive penetration of processing hubs, both supported by the Swift network. Many small and medium sized distributors in particular remain to be automated to reduce average costs and risks1.

tags-label Tags : TA, Cross-border fund processing, Automation, Standardisation,
tags-label Type : Event Report
EUROFI PRIORITIES FOR ECOFIN type-docpdf type-doc115.97 Ko calendar-select10-09-2008
document Summarized Text :
Eurofi, the dedicated think-tank for the integration of financial services in Europe, is organizing a conference on September 11 and 12 to discuss the proposals put forward by the financial industry at the ECOFIN, set against a global crisis with leaders facing new challenges.

This crisis shows that the supervision of cross-border financial groups must be adapted in order to factor in the rapid spillover of risks, the internationalization of their activities and the centralized organization of their financial management and strategy.
That is why Eurofi is proposing a series of pragmatic measures to improve the supervision of these groups and the prevention of crises, notably including:
- The establishment of colleges grouping the European supervisors concerned together, which would be given a similar mandate in order to ensure identical protection for all of the group’s European customers;
- A specific role entrusted to the supervisor from the home European country, ensuring that decisions relating to capital requirements and the organization of supervision can be taken quickly and effectively, and that information is immediately made available to all the other supervisors;
- The mission entrusted to the European supervisor committees (CEBS and CEIOPS), to facilitate the resolution of possible differences of views between supervisors from a given college and check that the conditions for fair competition between the financial institutions are brought about.

tags-label Tags : CEIOPS, Occupational Pensions, Solvency II directive, Microcredit, UCITS Directive, Management company, UCITS, Cross-border fund processing, Prudential rules, Accounting rules, CEBS, Regulation, Supervision,
tags-label Type : Event Report
Automation (3)
Session 04B Cross-Border Fund Processing in the EU type-docpdf type-doc199.59 Ko calendar-select09-11-2008
document Summarized Text :
Eurofi 08 - Thursday 11/09/08: Session [4A] IMPROVING CROSS-BORDER FUND PROCESSING IN THE EU: Towards an industry roadmap for optimising cross-border processing and proposals for monitoring the progress.
The Panel
Moderator: Wolf Klinz, MEP, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, European Parliament Panellists: Ivan Nicora, Director, Head of Funds Department, Product Management, Euroclear; Marc Raynaud, Global Head of Mutual Fund Distribution, BNP Paribas Investment Partners; Josée-Lynda Denis, Vice-President, Global Fund Services, The Bank of New York Mellon; Wolfgang Mansfeld, Member of the Executive Board, Union Asset Management Holding; Niall Bohan, Head of Unit, Asset Management, DG Internal Market and Services, European Commission; Bruno Prigent, Head of Investors Securities Services, Société Générale; Dominique Valschaerts, Member of the Executive Committee, Luxembourg Stock Exchange

The Debate
Wolf Klinz, MEP, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, European Parliament, prefaced the session by saying as a liberal he preferred not to introduce any more regulation, but to let the industry regulate itself. However, he acknowledged that little or no progress had been made on fund processing over the previous year, despite working groups at Efama and Eurofi having addressed the issue. “The fact is, 50 per cent of processing is still done manually, which is still too high,” Mr Klinz said.

tags-label Tags : Cross-border fund processing, Automation, Standardisation,
tags-label Type : Event Report
Ucits Processing type-docpdf type-doc131.43 Ko calendar-select11-09-2008
document Summarized Text :
Substantial progress is required in automation and standardization of all crossborder fund processing activities - order execution and settlement of transactions and commissions handling - to face up to increasing transaction volumes.

Investment funds are indeed a booming market in Europe and the volume of cross-border and third-party orders processed is developing strongly:
- At the end of 2006 e 7550 Bio were managed by approximately 31000 funds domiciled in the EU representing 34% of the worldwide fund industry and an 80% increase since 2003.
- Cross-border funds (ie registered in 5 countries or more) represented around 30% of net asset flows in 2005 and intra-EU cross-border fund transactions are considered to represent around 20% of total transactions in the EU.
- Third-party cross-border orders were evaluated to amount to around 27 Mio orders in 2006 for Luxembourg and Ireland – processed by TAs. Although progress is being made through many industry-driven initiatives, the level of automation and standardization of crossborder fund processing still needs to be optimized to improve efficiency, scalability and risk management with rising volumes:
- At present around 50% of cross-border orders are automated, mainly through relationships between large players and a progressive penetration of processing hubs, both supported by the Swift network. Many small and medium sized distributors in particular remain to be automated to reduce average costs and risks1.

tags-label Tags : TA, Cross-border fund processing, Automation, Standardisation,
tags-label Type : Event Report
Investment funds Executive summary type-docpdf type-doc812.27 Ko calendar-select03-12-2007
document Summarized Text :
Optimising cross-border distribution and processing of investment funds in the EU

Eurofi conference: 4 December 2007 EU Parliament

Executive summary of the Eurofi initiative
1. Eurofi worked over the last 12 months with a representative group of fund industry leaders covering the different steps of the value chain1, to make proposals for improving cross-border fund distribution and processing in the EU: UCITS funds are a booming market in Europe:
2 • At the end of 2006 €7550 billion were managed through investment funds domiciled in the EU representing 34% of the worldwide fund industry. UCITS funds represented 79% of this total with €5900 billion managed through approximately 31000 funds.
• The market growth has been very strong for UCITS and sustained over the recent years: +80% growth between 2003 vs 2006 and a two-fold increase since 1998. Cross-border and third-party fund distribution is developing in the EU3:
• Cross-border funds (ie registered in 5 countries or more) represented around 30% of net asset flows in 2005 and intra-EU cross-border fund transactions are considered to represent around 20% of total transactions in the EU
• Major distributors evaluated that in 2006, 55% of their activity was third-party with 35% in foreign funds. Many operational and legal obstacles limit at present the efficiency of UCITS cross-border distribution and processing in the EU. These obstacles are becoming increasingly important to address as cross-border and open architecture distribution develop. Solving these inefficiencies could further enhance the competitiveness of the EU funds industry by reducing complexity and eliminating certain operational risks and extra-costs. The EU Commission has focused the proposals made in the White Paper on activities related to regulatory compliance, management company overhead and asset management which are considered to represent around 15% of total costs and on some components of distribution (total distribution costs were evaluated to represent 60% of total costs)4.

1 The following institutions were part of the Eurofi working group co-chaired by W. Klinz (MEP), E. Corley (Allianz GI) and A. Papiasse (BNP Paribas) : - Banks (including asset management and processing entities): BNP Paribas, Unicredit Group / Pioneer AM / Bank Austria Creditanstalt, Crédit Agricole, Fortis
- Asset managers: JPMorgan AM, Natixis Global Associates, Union Investment, HSBC IM, Allianz GI, DWS
-Processing service providers: Citigroup, Schroders, Société Générale, CACEIS, State Street,
- Stock exchanges: Euronext, Bourse de Luxembourg
2 Source : EFAMA statistics
3 Source FERI statistics and FERI 2006 European Fund Buyer Survey. A rising proportion of UCITS are also sold outside the EU (around 15% of net sales)
4 Source: CRA study September 2006 - average production and distribution costs for equity funds in a sample of EU markets . CRA estimated that total production and distribution costs amounted to ~150 bp on average in a sample of EU countries. The study did not cover the whole value chain (eg trading costs are not included). We were not able to verify the validity of these costs or the methodology used, but these results give an indication of the breakdown of costs.

Asset management costs comprise: cash management, research, asset allocation, operational asset management and dealing decisions. Processing and administration costs cover fund and client administration, regulatory compliance of the fund and management company overheads and systems. Distribution and marketing costs cover new product development, compensation to distributors, documentation, promotional activity…

tags-label Tags : UCITS Directive, Non harmonised funds, TA, Depositaries, UCITS, Automation, Standardisation,
tags-label Type : Executive summary
Standardisation (3)
Session 04B Cross-Border Fund Processing in the EU type-docpdf type-doc199.59 Ko calendar-select09-11-2008
document Summarized Text :
Eurofi 08 - Thursday 11/09/08: Session [4A] IMPROVING CROSS-BORDER FUND PROCESSING IN THE EU: Towards an industry roadmap for optimising cross-border processing and proposals for monitoring the progress.
The Panel
Moderator: Wolf Klinz, MEP, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, European Parliament Panellists: Ivan Nicora, Director, Head of Funds Department, Product Management, Euroclear; Marc Raynaud, Global Head of Mutual Fund Distribution, BNP Paribas Investment Partners; Josée-Lynda Denis, Vice-President, Global Fund Services, The Bank of New York Mellon; Wolfgang Mansfeld, Member of the Executive Board, Union Asset Management Holding; Niall Bohan, Head of Unit, Asset Management, DG Internal Market and Services, European Commission; Bruno Prigent, Head of Investors Securities Services, Société Générale; Dominique Valschaerts, Member of the Executive Committee, Luxembourg Stock Exchange

The Debate
Wolf Klinz, MEP, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, European Parliament, prefaced the session by saying as a liberal he preferred not to introduce any more regulation, but to let the industry regulate itself. However, he acknowledged that little or no progress had been made on fund processing over the previous year, despite working groups at Efama and Eurofi having addressed the issue. “The fact is, 50 per cent of processing is still done manually, which is still too high,” Mr Klinz said.

tags-label Tags : Cross-border fund processing, Automation, Standardisation,
tags-label Type : Event Report
Ucits Processing type-docpdf type-doc131.43 Ko calendar-select11-09-2008
document Summarized Text :
Substantial progress is required in automation and standardization of all crossborder fund processing activities - order execution and settlement of transactions and commissions handling - to face up to increasing transaction volumes.

Investment funds are indeed a booming market in Europe and the volume of cross-border and third-party orders processed is developing strongly:
- At the end of 2006 e 7550 Bio were managed by approximately 31000 funds domiciled in the EU representing 34% of the worldwide fund industry and an 80% increase since 2003.
- Cross-border funds (ie registered in 5 countries or more) represented around 30% of net asset flows in 2005 and intra-EU cross-border fund transactions are considered to represent around 20% of total transactions in the EU.
- Third-party cross-border orders were evaluated to amount to around 27 Mio orders in 2006 for Luxembourg and Ireland – processed by TAs. Although progress is being made through many industry-driven initiatives, the level of automation and standardization of crossborder fund processing still needs to be optimized to improve efficiency, scalability and risk management with rising volumes:
- At present around 50% of cross-border orders are automated, mainly through relationships between large players and a progressive penetration of processing hubs, both supported by the Swift network. Many small and medium sized distributors in particular remain to be automated to reduce average costs and risks1.

tags-label Tags : TA, Cross-border fund processing, Automation, Standardisation,
tags-label Type : Event Report
Investment funds Executive summary type-docpdf type-doc812.27 Ko calendar-select03-12-2007
document Summarized Text :
Optimising cross-border distribution and processing of investment funds in the EU

Eurofi conference: 4 December 2007 EU Parliament

Executive summary of the Eurofi initiative
1. Eurofi worked over the last 12 months with a representative group of fund industry leaders covering the different steps of the value chain1, to make proposals for improving cross-border fund distribution and processing in the EU: UCITS funds are a booming market in Europe:
2 • At the end of 2006 €7550 billion were managed through investment funds domiciled in the EU representing 34% of the worldwide fund industry. UCITS funds represented 79% of this total with €5900 billion managed through approximately 31000 funds.
• The market growth has been very strong for UCITS and sustained over the recent years: +80% growth between 2003 vs 2006 and a two-fold increase since 1998. Cross-border and third-party fund distribution is developing in the EU3:
• Cross-border funds (ie registered in 5 countries or more) represented around 30% of net asset flows in 2005 and intra-EU cross-border fund transactions are considered to represent around 20% of total transactions in the EU
• Major distributors evaluated that in 2006, 55% of their activity was third-party with 35% in foreign funds. Many operational and legal obstacles limit at present the efficiency of UCITS cross-border distribution and processing in the EU. These obstacles are becoming increasingly important to address as cross-border and open architecture distribution develop. Solving these inefficiencies could further enhance the competitiveness of the EU funds industry by reducing complexity and eliminating certain operational risks and extra-costs. The EU Commission has focused the proposals made in the White Paper on activities related to regulatory compliance, management company overhead and asset management which are considered to represent around 15% of total costs and on some components of distribution (total distribution costs were evaluated to represent 60% of total costs)4.

1 The following institutions were part of the Eurofi working group co-chaired by W. Klinz (MEP), E. Corley (Allianz GI) and A. Papiasse (BNP Paribas) : - Banks (including asset management and processing entities): BNP Paribas, Unicredit Group / Pioneer AM / Bank Austria Creditanstalt, Crédit Agricole, Fortis
- Asset managers: JPMorgan AM, Natixis Global Associates, Union Investment, HSBC IM, Allianz GI, DWS
-Processing service providers: Citigroup, Schroders, Société Générale, CACEIS, State Street,
- Stock exchanges: Euronext, Bourse de Luxembourg
2 Source : EFAMA statistics
3 Source FERI statistics and FERI 2006 European Fund Buyer Survey. A rising proportion of UCITS are also sold outside the EU (around 15% of net sales)
4 Source: CRA study September 2006 - average production and distribution costs for equity funds in a sample of EU markets . CRA estimated that total production and distribution costs amounted to ~150 bp on average in a sample of EU countries. The study did not cover the whole value chain (eg trading costs are not included). We were not able to verify the validity of these costs or the methodology used, but these results give an indication of the breakdown of costs.

Asset management costs comprise: cash management, research, asset allocation, operational asset management and dealing decisions. Processing and administration costs cover fund and client administration, regulatory compliance of the fund and management company overheads and systems. Distribution and marketing costs cover new product development, compensation to distributors, documentation, promotional activity…

tags-label Tags : UCITS Directive, Non harmonised funds, TA, Depositaries, UCITS, Automation, Standardisation,
tags-label Type : Executive summary
Risk management (1)
Eurofi Report 5 Regulatory improvements Investment products type-docpdf type-doc178.53 Ko calendar-select06-02-2009
document Summarized Text :
The1current financial crisis and the alleged Madoff fraud have revealed risks and gaps in investment products regulation and supervision that need to be solved at the EU and possibly global regulatory levels with clarified and more harmonized responsibilities and liabilities along the fund value chain. Assessing further harmonisation opportunities of the framework of non UCITS investment products should also be a major objective for the Commission following a clarification of the needs of retail and institutional investors.

1. Clarifying responsibilities along the fund value chain and launching a harmonization effort across Europe are major priorities:

tags-label Tags : UCITS Directive, Asset Management, Non harmonised funds, TA, Depositaries, UCITS, Competing products, Risk management,
tags-label Type : Event Report

Membership

Eurofi brings together financial institutions of different sizes and statutes: domestic and cross-border banks and insurance companies with different legal statutes, broker dealers, asset managers, market infrastructures... The members of Eurofi are companies based in the main EU countries as well as well as subsidiaries of US firms. Eurofi works with all the representative stakeholders involved in a given subject to help them solve issues or identify new ideas and interact with EU political decision makers and legislators.

Financial cross-border supervision, the Solvency II Directive, the review of the UCITS Directive and the new Alternative Investment Fund Manager Directive, Accounting and Prudential rules to favour long term investment for example are major areas of focus of the work of Eurofi. The proposals made by Eurofi are presented to the main leaders of the EU authorities and discussed at the occasion of the Financial Forums organized by Eurofi"

Sponsors

Contribution to the de Larosière's Group

2009.05.24

Preventing future crises requires in particular:

  • Enabling the identification and preventative treatment of systemic risks for financial players or activities,
  • Improving the coordination of supervision for cross-border financial groups
  • Ensuring more transparent operations on the markets,
  • Clarifying responsibilities of investment fund players
  • Factoring in the accounting and prudential requirements of long-term investment.

These are the objectives on which Eurofi has focused its proposals.