UCITS V Proposal Directive

On 3 July 2012 the European Commission published a "Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending the UCITS IV Directive" (the "UCITS V Proposal Directive"). Wildgen, Partners in Law, published a short article " UCITS V - Proposal for a Directive" on the same date. Such UCITS V Proposal Directive was issued after the implementation by the member states of the so-called UCITS IV Directive1. Further amendments to the UCITS V Proposal Directive were adopted by the European Parliament on 3 July 2013.

Recently on 4 December 2013, the Permanent Representatives Committee agreed on behalf of the Council its own position on the UCITS V Proposal Directive.

According to the current regime, all assets of a UCITS fund must be entrusted to a depositary. The depositary is liable for losses suffered as a result of a failure to perform its duties, even though the precise scope of those duties is defined by the laws of the member states.

The proposed amendments to the existing UCITS regime aim to address lessons learned from the financial crises, most notably in connection with the Madoff incident which highlighted a number of issues relating to inconsistency between member states of the EU in applying the provisions of the UCITS directive. The European Commission tends to align the UCITS framework with the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive2 ("AIFMD") which was implemented in Luxembourg...