Consultation on guidance for regulators on how to apply transitional provisions introduced by the UCITS III Directive.

The amending UCITS Directive introduced in 2001 (commonly known as the UCITS III Directive) contain a number of transitional provisions which apply both to UCITS I funds and to grandfathered management companies respectively, and these have given rise to differing interpretations across Europe regarding how they should be implemented.
The draft guidelines, presented today for consultation have therefore been developed at the request of market participants to converge the different administrative practices which have arisen in Member States. In the four months since CESR has been given responsibility to advise the European Commission in the field of investment management, it has drawn on its capacities under Level 3 (which includes the ability to implement own initiative actions to foster regulatory convergence as introduced by the Lamfalussy process), to develop tangible and pragmatic solutions which when finalised, will foster convergence between regulatory practices, which have hindered the single market in this sector for the past two years.
Comments on the guidelines are also welcomed by 8 December 2004 and can be submitted online via CESR's website under the heading