IRELAND: Central Bank of Ireland Publishes Eighth Edition of the UCITS Q&A

Monday October 26 2015

On 23rd October 2015, the Central Bank of Ireland issued an eighth edition of the UCITS Q&A. New questions ID 1047 and ID 1048 on certain transitional arrangements related to the Central Bank UCITS Regulations are included:

ID 1047
Q. Where a responsible person has received a waiver from the UCITS Notices, can it submit an application to receive a similar waiver from the Central Bank UCITS Regulations?

A. Yes, an application can be made. These should be received by the Central Bank before 1 November 2015. It is essential to submit applications promptly as, from 1 November, any existing waivers will automatically cease to apply and cannot be relied on thereafter. However, where an application to continue an existing waiver is received before 1 November, the Central Bank will communicate with you concerning your proposed waiver and will make bilateral arrangements with you with regard to the continuation of the waiver during the period that the application is being assessed.

New waivers cannot be granted automatically and the merits of each proposed waiver will be reassessed by the Central Bank on a case-by-case basis. Accordingly, the application must refer to and summarise in detail the previous correspondence where the original waiver was granted and present a justification for why a waiver should be given. The provision of the CBI UCITS Regulations from which a waiver is sought should also be referenced.

ID 1048
Q. When should revisions to a UCITS prospectus be made?

A. Technical amendments, for example to replace references to the UCITS Notices with references to the Central Bank UCITS Regulations, should also take place when the prospectus is next updated. Where text needs to be updated to reflect the text of the CBI UCITS Regulations or where the CBI UCITS Regulations have refined rules contained in the UCITS Notices (e.g. connected party transactions), that can be treated as a technical update which can be incorporated when the prospectus is next updated.

Regulation 124(1) of the CBI UCITS Regulations grants a transitional period for prospectus amendments to include disclosures where a responsible person proposes, on behalf of a UCITS, to take short positions. These amendments must be made when the prospectus is next updated.

Where a UCITS is planning to take advantage of a new flexibility introduced by the CBI UCITS Regulations and where the previous position is set out in the UCITS prospectus (e.g. collateral diversification), the prospectus must be updated before the responsible person, on behalf of a UCITS, starts to take advantage of the new flexibility.

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