EUROPE: Eligible Assets Directive and Guidance published and in force

Monday March 19 2007

The European Commission has today published in the Official Journal the Directive on Eligible Assets of UCITS. This brings the Directive into force and implement legal binding guidance on whether instruments can be included in UCITS. The Directive can be found at the above link.

To compliment the publication of the Directive, CESR has published its Guidelines on UCITS Eligible Assets. These Guidelines can be found here – http://www.funds-axis.com/newsArticle.asp?type=2 &id=413

To explain, in CESR’s work on eligible assets of UCITS they published Level 2 recommendations and Level 3 Guidelines. The Level 2 recommendations have now for the most part been included in the Directive. The Level 3 Guidelines are aspects in respect of which it is thought legislation is not required, but these are now published as Level 3 Guidelines.