UCITS Liquidity Risk Management: ESMA’s 11 Areas for Improvement
ESMA has published the results of the 2020 Common Supervisory Action (CSA) on UCITS liquidity risk management (LRM). UCITS are characterised by the offer to investors of on-demand liquidity. Article 84(1) states that UCITS shall repurchase or redeem its units at the request of any unit-holder. If the assets held within the fund cannot be sold quickly to meet redemption requests, there could be severe issues in paying redeeming investors. This can be exacerbated in times of stress when investors may look to redeem en masse whilst the market for the assets is drying up.