8.2.4 Additional provisions at national level

Finally, I examined the question of whether additional rules apply at national level.

Luxembourg and Ireland have additional provisions in respect of the topics listed in the previous paragraph. For example, Luxembourg has rules on how to deal with valuation errors and how to liquidate a UCITS, and Ireland has provisions on performance fees and how to calculate them.

Besides these areas, the main aspects with respect to which additional rules have been introduced at national level are requirements related to the management company, investment restrictions and authorization requirements. Ireland and Luxembourg have laid down detailed provisions on the tasks of a management company. These provisions are so detailed that I do not think they are desirable at EU level. The provisions ensure legal certainty without enhancing the protection of unitholders. The same applies to the provisions on investment restrictions. These requirements are not necessarily more strict than the Directive but provide more clarity on what is and what isn’t allowed.

The provisions on authorization do, in my view, enhance investment protection. In practice, regulators require more information before granting a UCITS approval than is required by the UCITS Directive. For example, the Irish and Luxembourg regulators approve, among other things, the prospectus of a UCITS. These supervisors do the same when a prospectus is amended. In my opinion, this should be done by all regulators and mandatory prospectus approval should be added to the Directive. This will enhance the protection of unitholders.