Supervisory convergence is a core element of the Single Market and integral to removing barriers to cross-border provision of financial services. It is not enough to have a common rule book, but also the reading of those rules by supervisors and supervisory practices should converge to ensure the Single Market is not hampered by diverging interpretations and gold-plating of EU rules.
Supervision
While tighter regulation following the 2008 financial crisis helped bridge prior regulatory gaps, it also led to regulatory fragmentation across jurisdictions. Despite international coordination, different jurisdictions inevitably adopted different regulatory approaches and rules. The European Union is no exception; rules are not always interpreted or implemented consistently across the Union.
EFAMA participates in the effort to address this regulatory fragmentation. It does so by promoting effective and consistent supervision across Member States, by defending the industry’s delegation model, and by advocating for deference between jurisdictions. EFAMA also monitors 3rd-country developments, to ensure that such developments do not negatively impact the European asset management industry. These initiatives have concrete impact on increasing product choice and decreasing costs, which benefits end investors.
EFAMA's response to EC's Consultation on operations of the European Supervisory Authorities
UK investors will continue to benefit from easy access to EU investment funds under new regulatory regime
European fund body asks UK regulator to further simplify recognition of EU retail funds
EFAMA calls for better synchronisation between Level 1, 2 and 3 acts
EFAMA has published its response to the European Commission’s targeted consultation on the supervisory convergence and the Single Rule Book, focusing on three areas for improvement.
EFAMA welcomes final agreement on legislation facilitating cross-border distribution of funds
We welcome yesterday's vote by the European Parliament plenary, formally adopting the trilogue agreement on the Commission's initiative to remove cross-border barriers to the distribution of investment funds.
This marks a decisive recognition of the need to postpone the application of the PRIIPs disclosure regime for UCITS by two years, in light of the regime's documented shortcomings. It also allows the European Commission more time to conduct a thorough review of the same within one year.
Annual Review June 2019-June 2020
"It gives me great pleasure to provide you with an overview of our activities since our Annual General Meeting in Paris last year. While we were very much looking forward to hosting you all in Brussels this week, the current crisis and associated travel restrictions has forced us to improvise and turn our meeting into a virtual AGM.
Closet Index Funds
EFAMA has reviewed ESMA’s statement “Supervisory work on potential index tracking”, which sets out research to determine whether any indication of closet indexing could be found at EU level. To contribute to the debate on this matter, EFAMA has prepared a paper, which highlights the limits of identifying closet index funds through a statistical analysis, drawing on recently published research papers.