In this month’s round-up, of particular interest, nearly two years after the implementation of the Assessment of Value requirements, the FCA have finally provided feedback following a review of 18 firms conducted between July 2020 and May 2021…
The pressure is rising on the ManCo industry – Management Companies (ManCos) are dealing with more regulations, and more regulatory change than ever before. This constant churning of regulatory change, coupled with increased scrutiny from regulators has led to a complex, pressured regulatory environment. However, this increased scrutiny is not the only challenge facing Mancos!
You’ve heard of FinTech, you’ve heard of RegTech, but have you heard of ManCoTech? It’s the latest “buzzword” in the European investment and compliance community. So what exactly is ManCoTech and why is it gaining such prominence?
Last week the FCA published the results of their review on ‘host’ Authorised Fund Management firms’ which concluded with the FCA wanting to see “significant improvements” with many currently failing to meet the FCA standards. This week, the FCA have issued their findings on the review of AFMs Assessment of Value reports. Unfortunately, this review does not provide any easier reading and delivers another huge blow to the industry.
On 30th June, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a review of Host Authorised Fund Management Firms. The review, which was carried out between Q4 2019 to Q4 2020.
Yesterday, ESMA announced that it will be launching a Common Supervisory Action (CSA) with national competent authorities (NCAs) on the supervision of costs and fees of UCITS across the European Union. The CSA aims to assess the compliance of supervised entities with the relevant cost-related provisions in the UCITS framework, and the obligation of not charging investors with undue costs.
During the CSA, national competent authorities will take into account the supervisory briefing on the supervision of costs published by ESMA in June 2020.
It’s been almost a year since the FCA Assessment of Value rules came into force, and many firms would say that due to the FCA’s limited guidance thus far, they are still no clearer as to what a good value statement look like.
ESMA recently published a supervisory briefing on the supervision by National Competent Authorities (NCAs) of costs applicable to Undertakings for the Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) and Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs). The briefing was response to the need to improve convergence across NCAs in the approach to undue costs.
Under the FCA’s Asset Management Market Study, the final report of which was published in June 2017, the City watchdog determined that price competition is weak in a number of areas of the industry.
A number of key regulators including ESMA, the CBI and the FCA have reviewed the market for potential hidden “closet tracker” funds and published their findings, with a number of funds providing inaccurate information in their investor disclosure documents as regards investment strategy.
