EFAMA has published its latest Monthly Statistical Release for June 2024.
Thomas Tilley, Senior Economist at EFAMA, commented: “The ECB rate cut of early June resulted in strong net inflows into bond UCITS throughout the month.”
The main developments in June can be summarised as follows:
62,000+ new fund share classes have been added, including new categories
ESMA technical standards move one step closer to consolidated tape launch.
ESMA recently closed the consultation for regulatory technical standards that will define the competitive selection process for the consolidated tape, as well as the technical abilities that applicants will be assessed on. In its response for the buy-side, EFAMA stressed that a robust governance framework for the operators of the tapes is critical.
EFAMA supports achieving greater transparency through reform of the bond deferral regime. We would like to offer some feedback that suggests a different calibration on both liquidity thresholds, and the determination of trade size buckets.
We appreciate the analysis carried out by ESMA, which offers a solid basis for the review of the bond deferral regime. Nevertheless, we would like to provide some feedback on the proposed approach, which we believe can be further finetuned:
ESMA’s Call for Evidence on the UCITS Eligible Assets Directive is a welcome opportunity to take stock of the existing UCITS framework.
EFAMA has published its latest Monthly Statistical Release for May 2024.
Thomas Tilley, Senior Economist at EFAMA, commented: “May 2024 saw net sales of equity UCITS rise to a 35-month high thanks to strong net inflows into equity ETFs and a rebound in non-ETF equity funds.”
On Friday 19 July, the European Commission formally adopted its Delegated Regulation supplementing the ELTIF Regulation. This text will now be subject to a 3-month scrutiny period by the co-legislators before entering into force.
EFAMA congratulates the Commission on a very robust set of Level 2 rules which will support the revised ELTIF rulebook.
The Commission aims to present a legislative proposal to address the tax-induced debt-equity bias, also to support the action plan for the Capital Markets Union and to encourage companies to finance their investment through equity contributions rather than through debt financing.
EFAMA provided high-level comments to the Commission’s consultation on the potential review of the Directive on Distance Marketing of Consumer Financial Services.
We agree with the Commission’s interpretation that the Directive is seen as a “safety net” for financial services not already subject to product-specific legislation. Fund and asset managers are already subject to various, more stringent and detailed sectoral legislations, such as (but not limited to) UCITS, AIFMD and MiFID as well as the (more recent) Cross-Border Fund Distribution Directives.
The asset management industry recognises the much-needed adoption of mandatory European sustainability reporting standards under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) proposal. Insufficient availability of meaningful, comparable, reliable, and public Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) data is a key impediment to realising the full potential of the EU's sustainable finance regulatory framework. Financial market participants' sustainable investments need to be driven by real, verifiable and reported ESG metrics of company's activities and financial risks.
Nine associations (AFME, AIMA, EAPB, EBF, EFAMA, FIA, ICI, ISDA, SIFMA AMG) welcome the Commission's decision to grant a time-limited equivalence decision in respect of UK CCPs. However, when this time-limited equivalence decision expires on 30 June 2022, there remains a significant risk of disruption to clearing for EU firms and to their access to global markets.
Given the increasingly important role ESG ratings and data products providers play in investment processes, EFAMA welcomes the increased attention of regulators to this issue. In light of the growing regulatory scrutiny on the ESG characteristics of potential investments, improving the usability and reliability of the ESG ratings and data products is a key priority for the European asset management industry.
The European Commission recently adopted amendments to the Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products (PRIIPs) Regulation and the Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) Directive. However, in contrast to earlier plans, the adoption of the revised Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) amending Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/653 has been postponed.
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