The Central Bank of Ireland (the "Central Bank") has outlined the process through which revised Business Plans of authorised UCITS self-managed investment companies ("SMICs") will be filed with the Central Bank.
For existing UCITSSMICS, the deadline for Compliance with the UCITS IV change is 1 July 2013.
All new SMIC applications received from January 2013 must comply in full with the new requirements. Revised versions of the Central Bank's UCITS Notice 2 and Guidance Note 4/07 are expected to be issued shortly.
In its letter, the Central Bank confirmed that the following documentation must be filed:
- marked-up copy of the SMIC Business Plan showing the UCITS IV changes made;
- clean copy of the SMIC Business Plan;
- marked-up copy of the SMIC's Statement of Responsibility showing the UCITS IV changes made;
- clean copy of the SMICs Statement of Responsibility; and
- letter from the board of directors of the SMIC confirming that each of the above listed documents is in compliance with the UCITS IV requirements. Compliance with any applicable capital requirements must also be confirmed.
It is proposed that SMIC Business Plans be filed with the Central Bank in 3 tranches, namely end-January 2013, end-March 2013 and end-May 2013.
The Central Bank confirmed that individual submissions will not be acknowledged. Instead, at the end of each tranche deadline, legal firms will receive a list of the submissions that have been made by them and received by the Central Bank during that period. While letters confirming compliance with UCITS IV will not be issued by the Central Bank, spot checks will take place so that the Central Bank might get an indication of the extent of compliance by various SMICs with the UCITS IV requirements.
With respect to whether or not SMICs will be subject to the same requirements as those imposed on UCITS management companies, the Central Bank confirmed that in considering those requirements that are deemed not to readily fall within the ambit of the SMIC business model, SMICs should apply the nature, scale and complexity concept. This means that the same requirements will apply to both SMICs and UCITS management companies. However, the steps to be taken to ensure compliance will differ for SMICs given their less complex nature.
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