The European Parliament today formalised its position on the Retail Investment Strategy, which significantly improves on the original European Commission proposal.
The European Parliament today formalised its position on the Retail Investment Strategy, which significantly improves on the original European Commission proposal.
Former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta has released today his report on the future of the Single Market. Together with the recent statement of the Eurogroup in inclusive format on the future of CMU, and the upcoming report of Mario Draghi, there is increasing emphasis on EU competitiveness and the need to make urgent progress towards achieving a well-functioning Capital Markets Union to finance Europe’s necessary transitions.
The FCA’s recent report on the wholesale data market is an important and high-quality study which echoes many long-standing buy-side concerns. It finds evidence of unequal market power in terms of market concentration, highly profitable margins, opaque pricing practices, excessive charging, bundling practices and complex licensing agreements, all of which negatively impact data users. Much of this data is indispensable for users to stay in business and fulfil regulatory obligations.
“The European T+1 Industry Task Force welcomes the recent publication of a report by the Chair of the UK Accelerated Settlement Task Force, and in particular the statement that the “UK and other European jurisdictions should continue to explore opportunities for close collaboration…to see if they can align their moves to T+1.” The members of the European T+1 Industry Task Force emphasise the need for a coordinated approach between the EU/EEA, Switzerland and the UK.
New rules for the AIFMD and UCITS Directive were published on 26 March 2024 in the Official Journal of the European Union, making them law. These investment frameworks are European success stories and an integral part of the Capital Markets Union (CMU).
EFAMA has today published its latest Monthly Statistical Release for January 2024.
Thomas Tilley, Senior Economist at EFAMA, commented on the January 2024 figures: “January 2024 saw a continuation of the same trends as in 2023 - strong net inflows into fixed-income funds and ETFs. In comparison, multi-asset and equity funds saw much more subdued, or even negative, demand.”
EFAMA has published its latest International Quarterly Statistical Release for Q4 2023.
Thomas Tilley, Senior Economist at EFAMA, commented on the Q4 2023 figures: “Worldwide money market funds (MMFs) saw record net inflows of almost EUR 1.4 trillion over 2023, with about EUR 1 trillion of these net inflows in the United States. Many US investors were attracted by the higher returns offered by MMFs compared to bank deposits.”
EFAMA has released its policy recommendations to unlock private investment in Europe
EFAMA welcomes the decision of the European Commission to adopt a targeted approach in its review of the Alternative Investment Fund Management Directive (AIFMD), along with key harmonising provisions within the Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferrable Securities Directive (UCITSD). This focus on targeted improvements recognises the role this framework has played in encouraging the growth in the European Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) market over the past decade and its resilience even throughout recent market stresses.
EFAMA strongly supports the Commission's draft proposal amending the ELTIF Regulation where it addresses some of the major obstacles that have undermined the attractiveness of the ELTIF product since inception. The revised legal framework has the potential to transform ELTIF into a product of choice for a larger (retail) investor audience, all while serving the purposes of the Capital Markets Union (CMU). However, some important adjustments remain to be made for the ELTIF regime to reach its full potential as a competitive long-term investment option.
The European Commission’s proposal on MiFIR establishes the blueprint for a consolidated tape (CT) for Europe’s capital markets. It also significantly alters the competitive market structure brought about by MiFID II by introducing greater transparency requirements. Finally, it addresses important issues around market data costs.
EFAMA replied to IASB’s request for information on the Post-Implementation Review (PIR) of IFRS 9 – Classification and measurement. Our paper recaps EFAMA’s key concerns and recommendations to the IASB. The key concerns of the industry are the removal of recycling (in particular for institutional investors) and the classification of investment entities and investment funds as debt instruments.
We commend the work that IOSCO has undertaken to date on this topic including the survey work and the summary findings in the form of the report currently under review. It is fair to say that the conclusions of the report and areas for further work gave rise to detailed discussions within our industry, yielding ultimately firm views on the priority areas that we support and see value in, and areas we felt were not reflected in the study and thereby building risk into margining models in future crisis scenarios. These areas are fur
For asset managers the main issue continues to be the reclassification of ETDs as OTCs as a result of the non-equivalence of UK regulated markets. While we understand that a review is legally mandated at this point in time, we do not see value in recalibrating the various thresholds or making changes to the calculation methodologies unless these are in the two areas we define below. Our main concern revolves around the fact that changes would carry significant compliance costs while making little impact on the population of counterparties and notional captured by the thresholds.
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