January 2015 - European fund industry news

The European fund industry in January

2014: a record year for Europe?

EFAMA’s year-end statistics on the European fund industry are not yet published but based on figures released by national associations, 2014 could be a record year for inflows and total assets.

So far a number of associations have reported record highs for the year, including those in Luxembourg, Italy, the UK, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

EFAMA’s latest monthly statistics for November show positive inflows for UCITS inflows for all eleven months and already during 2014 net assets passed the 11 trillion euro mark.

European Commission launches work on a capital markets union

On 28 January, the European Commission launched its project to create a capital markets union (CMU) for all 28 member states.

The CMU has the objective to help businesses to tap into diverse sources of capital from anywhere in the EU and offers investors and savers additional opportunities to put their money to work. It aims to create a single market for capital for all 28 Member States by removing barriers to cross-border investment and lower costs of funding within the EU.

There will be a period of consultation on the CMU and an action plan is expected during the third quarter of 2015.

ESMA updates and consultations

Following a large number of consultation papers issued by the European Securities and Markets Authority in December, there was much less activity in this respect in January.

On 13 January, ESMA announced that it would hold an open hearing on the issues set out in its consultation paper on MiFID II/MiFIR. This hearing will take place on 19 February in Paris.

On 9 January, ESMA released updates on its Q&As on the AIFMD and the guidelines on ETFs and other UCITS issues.

Finally, following publication of December’s Fundsquare News, ESMA opened, on 23 December, a consultation to develop a common understanding of what constitutes a share class.

In fact, the UCITS Directive recognises the possibility for UCITS to offer different share classes to investors but it does not prescribe whether, and to what extent, share classes of a given UCITS can differ from each other.

IMA rebrands as The Investment Association

On 5 January, the UK investment management association, the IMA completed its rebranding as The Investment Association.

This is the final step in a rebrand that began in July last year with the move of certain staff from the Association of British Insurers to the IMA, enabling it to speak on investment matters for insurers as well as investment managers.

Fund industry publications

Publications of note from the European fund industry in January included:

• The German, UK and French asset management associations updated their common template for Solvency II reporting
• PwC issued a report on exchange traded funds entitled ETF 2020: preparing for a new horizon as well as the 2014 edition of its Luxembourg Fund Governance Survey
• BBH released its 2015 Regulatory Field Guide for funds and asset managers
• AIMA and the CAIA Association published the first of a series of educational papers about hedge funds for pension fund trustees and other fiduciaries at institutional investors
• Sixteen UK pension funds published a responsible investment guide to increase accountability and transparency between asset owners and their investment managers.

_{Published on: 30 January 2015}

Fundsquare News 16 - January 2015