Luxembourg's Financial Sector Supervisory Authority (CSSF) has issued a circular that aims to clarify technical details of how alternative fund managers should comply with the reporting obligations set out in the European Union's Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive, as transposed into Luxembourg's legislation by the law of July 12, 2013.
The frequency and nature of the reporting requirements depend on managers' levels of assets under management, investment strategies and use (if any) of leverage. The obligation are set out in article 3 (3)(d) of the directive for registered alternative fund managers (those whose assets are below the thresholds triggering the obligation for full compliance) and article 24 (1), (2) and (4) for authorised managers subject to the full requirements of the legislation. In the Luxembourg law these articles correspond to article 3 (3)(d) for registered managers and article 22 (1), (2) and (4) for authorised managers.
The European Commission's so-called Level 2 implementing Regulation 231/2013 of December 19, 2012 provides details on the reporting obligations to national regulators under Articles 3 and 24 of the AIFMD, and the regulation's Annex IV contains a reporting template for managers to use.
Following a consultation exercise, the European Securities and Markets Authority published in November its revised final report on AIFMD reporting guidelines, along with further details and technical supporting material comprising a consolidated reporting template, detailed IT guidance for filing of the XML and the XSD schema.
Information on operational issues applicable to AIFMD reporting, including its frequency, reporting periods and first reporting period for existing, registered and authorised managers is available in the final ESMA report and in the Frequently-Asked Questions document for managers published by the CSSF on its website.
CSSF Circular 14/581 stipulates that the reporting files should be submitted electronically exclusively via channels accepted by the regulator in accordance with its existing Circular 08/334. Further details regarding legal reporting is available on the CSSF website by clicking here.
The new circular details the technical specifications of the reporting files, as defined by ESMA, including the requirement for all text fields to be completed in English, the contents of the files to be submitted for managers and funds, certification of the sender if not the manager itself, naming conventions and CSSF response messages.
The full text of the CSSF circular can be viewed by clicking here
In our AIFM Directive blog on our website you may more information in relation to the AIFMD. Such blog can be viewed by clicking here.
Olivier Sciales
Chevalier & Sciales
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Email: oliviersciales@cs-avocats.lu
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