ESMA reports on fund notifications

ESMA has published a report on notification frameworks and home-host responsibilities under the UCITS and AIFMD regimes. It carried out a study looking at the cross-border management and marketing activities of UCITS and their managers. It found many examples of good practice by supervisors and firms.  A similar study looking at the mirroring activities of AIFMs also found good compliance and supervisory practice. Firms might find the results slightly surprising, particularly given the well-documented difficulties in marketing under the AIFMD passport. The questionnaire on which the study was based asked several questions, and ESMA presented data on numbers of funds and use of the passport, which suggested that, with the exception of the UK, and to a significantly lesser extent, France, little use has been made of the AIFMD passport.