Of relevance to: UCITS management companies and AIFMs
UCITS and AIFs: Transparency Requirements
A reminder to UCITS management companies and AIFMs that certain transparency obligations arising under the Securities Financing Transactions Regulation (“SFTR” – 2015/2365) apply from 13 January 2017 – see Regulatory Roundup 76.
A SFT is defined as:
- a repurchase transaction;
- securities or commodities lending and securities or commodities borrowing;
- a buy-sell back transaction or sell-buy back transaction;
a margin lending transaction.
The effect is that affected firms will need to include in their periodic reports (half-yearly and annual for UCITS and annual for AIFs) the information as set out in section A of the Annex to the SFTR, although this is copied out in the Handbook as to:
- UCITS and NURS: COLL 4.5.8AA onwards
- Qualified investor schemes: COLL 8.3.5AA
- AIFs: FUND 3.3.7B.
The above obligations arise from Article 13 of the SFTR which extends transparency to the use of SFTs and to total return swaps.
For the record, Article 14 requires transparency in pre-contractual documentation (content based upon section B of the Annex to the SFTR) although this does not come into force until 13 July 2017 for those funds constituted before 12 January 2016. Interested firms can find these requirements in the Handbook now as to:
- UCITS and NURS: COLL 4.2.5A
- Qualified investor schemes: COLL 8.3.4A
- AIFs: FUND 3.2.4A
