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Finesti, the Luxembourg-based information agency for the collection and dissemination of fund information, has launched a service that enables investment funds to comply with the requirements of the UCITS IV directive concerning European cross-border notifications.
This directive streamlined the procedure to be followed by funds domiciled in a European country that market and distribute their shares in one or more other European countries. Previously, this process could take up to two months. The new directive harmonised the various national procedures and introduced a regulator-to-regulator process. Now, an investment fund that wishes to sell its shares in jurisdictions other than its home country transmits a standard notification package to its home country regulator, who has a much shorter ten working days to review it and to transmit it to the host country regulator. Once this process is completed, the fund then has the right to market its shares.
Finesti is offering a notification service that is built on secure, automated electronic communication and is combined with the capacity to transmit high volumes of documents to all thirty regulators in the European Economic Area.
The Finesti solution for cross-border notifications is a new module of its existing regulatory reporting platform, e-file.lu, which it runs with its parent company, the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.
This “e-file” notification module enables fund managers, promoters, legal advisors, and administrators, as well as audit firms, to adapt to the new environment. It assists them in compiling and transmitting the notification packages to the fund’s home regulator. Notification packages are made up of up to ten documents, including prospectuses, financial reports and KIIDs, or Key Investor Information Documents. Finesti is well placed in this respect as it already collects and disseminates such documents for Luxembourg-domiciled funds and for a number of non Luxembourg-domiciled funds.
Finesti’s e-file.lu also offers services to funds for their initial registration processes in their home country. It additionally allows funds to send updates of notification documents directly to the host country regulators.
Dominique Valschaerts, CEO of Finesti said “I am very pleased to be able to offer this service to all European funds. We have efficient tools for data and document collection and dissemination. I believe that this is the most efficient and far-reaching solution available and one that, furthermore, allows us to provide a host of complementary services for pan-European fund distribution”.
