Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities Directives

The UCITS Directive (Council Directive of 20 December 1985 on the coordination of laws, regulations and administrative provisions relating to undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities ( UCITS ) - Directive 85/611/EEC) defines the specific requirements for funds and their management companies. A focus here is on the regulation of allowable assets in which a UCITS may invest (English: eligible assets ). Detailed rules on this subject are in the implementing Directive Directive 2007/16/EC of the European Commission included.

UCITS stands for " Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities " (French: OPCVM for Organisme de placement collectif en valeurs mobilières, English: UCITS for Undertakings for Collective Investments in Transferable Securities ) law in the European legal framework is understood as mutual funds, which in. defined types of securities and other financial instruments to invest ( money market funds ).

UCITS subject to authorization and are supervised by the Financial Supervision ( in Germany by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority ). The UCITS Directive also imposes a number of mandatory information for investors. This includes the full and the simplified prospectus and the annual and semi-annual reports. In this way, uniform standards of investor protection are assured and the cross- border supply of investment funds can be facilitated. UCITS benefit from a " European passport " that allows them to be offered to the public, subject to an ad in all EEA countries ( EU plus Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland ), unless they are licensed in their country of origin.

In July 2008, the European Commission presented a draft revision of the UCITS Directive (UCITS IV), which aims at further integration of the European fund market. It is planned in particular to simplify the notification procedure for cross- border distribution, to enable cross-border fund mergers and introduce a new concept of investor information ( so-called key investor information), which is to replace the existing simplified prospectus.

These changes are contained in Directive 2009/65/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 July 2009 on the coordination of laws, regulations and administrative provisions relating to undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities ( UCITS) (OJ L 302 of 17 November 2009, p 32) was promulgated and replace the old UCITS Directive 85/611/EEC. To their further implementation inter alia, Directive 2010/43/EU and Directive 2010/44/EU were created. The implementation into German law was done by amending the Investment Act of July 1, 2011., This was replaced 22 July 2013 by the Investment Code.