Updates to European Facilities Agent Requirements

Under the current UCITS and ELTIF Directives, fund managers selling funds in the European Economic Area (“EEA”) and the UK on a cross-border basis are required to appoint a local agent to ensure certain facilities are made available to investors in member states where the fund is marketed.  As a result of the pending regulatory updates, this function can now be performed by a single entity, without the need to appoint multiple agents in each relevant member state.

Given these updates, the Maples Group is uniquely positioned to provide facilities agent services, including local language capabilities, to all European domiciled collective investment schemes (“CIS”), including UCITS, retail alternative investment funds (“AIFs”) and European long-term investment funds (“ELTIF”), wishing to passport and market throughout the EEA and the UK.

Legal and Regulatory Advice

Through our Global Registration Services team, we provide a fully managed service supporting managers selling their CIS on a cross-border basis.  Our services include:

• Market intelligence;
• Passport or local registration regimes (UCITS and / or AIF);
• National private placement regimes; and
• Robust maintenance reporting services to ensure compliance with local offering rules.

Place of Facilities

To assist managers in fulfilling their obligations required when marketing their European domiciled products throughout the EEA and the UK, we can facilitate investors:

• Inspecting fund documentation, including the instrument of incorporation of the CIS, the fund rules / current prospectus, any supplement / addenda or amendments thereto and the latest key (investor) information documents;
• Inspecting the most recently prepared and published annual and half-yearly reports relating to the CIS;
• Sourcing the latest price of units in the CIS;
• Arranging for the redemption of whole or part of their holdings of units;
• Submitting complaints relating to the CIS;
• Accessing any other documents required to be made available in accordance with applicable local member state rules; and
• Accessing multi-lingual staff who are fluent in the official language of a number of member states.

Through the collective expertise of our specialist teams, we provide a turnkey solution for fulfilling the various legal and regulatory requirements for distributing fund products in the EEA and UK.  Engaging a specialist provider to support this can reduce the risk and burden of meeting these obligations internally and can also afford greater efficiency by working with a single provider across multiple jurisdictions versus  working with local agents in various jurisdictions.  Furthermore, our institutional-style framework, best-of-breed core systems and proprietary technology platforms, allow us to deliver high-touch, responsive client service and customised solutions to meet each individual client’s needs.  This comprehensive approach and seamless offering meets all regulatory, compliance and filing requirements associated with marketing European domiciled products throughout the EEA and the UK.

For more information on our European facilities agent services, please click here to get in touch with a member of our team.