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& Policy

In our response, we welcome the Commission’s proposal for a CSRD and support the view that in order to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth it is key to have relevant, comparable and reliable sustainability information. That said, we ask the Commission to pay particular attention to certain aspects of the CSRD of key importance to the industry, such as the need for alignment, coherence and consistency on content and timeline with other pieces of legislation, such as the SFDR and the Taxonomy, and the importance of applying the materiality and proportionality principles when considering the extension of the scope to SMEs.

In this response, we shared our views on the European Commission’s initiative to mitigate a potential debt-equity bias induced by taxation. We notably stressed that the differences between the tax deductions of costs related to debt vs. equity should be dealt with in a way that allows for more deductions – not fewer. Thus, we are happy to support the idea of introducing an equity allowance.

This Member Policy Call gave insight in what is in the pipeline on the European and global tax agenda, and how this may affect your business.

This letter, as for the Q&A to the EBA, addresses the treatment of an institution’s investments into EU AIF managed by a non-EU AIFM and into closed-ended CIUs.

This Q&A addresses the treatment of an institution’s investments into EU AIF managed by a non-EU AIFM and into closed-ended CIUs, flagging that clarification should be brought to such treatment to ensure that exposures to closed-ended funds are not given a risk weight that is not appropriate to the risk it poses.

In this paper Insurance Europe and Invest Europe jointly present their suggestions on how to allow insurers to commit capital into long-term funds such as private equity ones. The document also gathers specific changes to the criteria of the Solvency II recently introduced long-term equity category.

In this response we share our view that ESMA has generally had a positive role on supervisory convergence, although it should not necessarily receive new powers. We also comment that some changes could be made to the ESAs governance to make it able to take decisions in gold-plating cases (like AIFMD fees and charges) and that direct supervision is generally not welcomed.

In this consultation response, which is part of our ongoing efforts on seeking clarification on the application of SFDR, we have stressed the importance of ensuring coherence and alignment between different levels of reporting under EU law and asked the European regulators to introduce an element of proportionality into the reporting of Taxonomy alignment by asset managers.

In this response we reminded the European Commission about the importance of making changes to the investor categorisation, we explained the relevance of the ELTIF framework and we provided our support to rules that appropriately take into consideration both the nature of investors and of the funds that are marketed to them.

In this response, we have shared our views on the European Commission’s initiative to review the VAT rules for financial services. We stressed that the European Commission must preserve and strengthen the VAT exemption for fund management, as it is essential for EU based private equity funds, and the EU economy and EU businesses depending on their investments.

In our response to the European Commission feasibility assessment on the establishment of an SME Referral Scheme we express our concerns around the functioning and benefits of such a scheme. We outline the characteristics that make PE and VC funding different to justify why this type of funding is not interchangeable with bank financing and why we fear the scheme could give this mistaken idea to SMEs. Therefore, even though we fully support the objectives of increasing funding options and awareness of PE and VC funding for SMEs we do not believe a referral scheme would be the best way to do so.

In this webinar Stephen Ziff, Partner & Co-Head of Investor Relations and Fundraising at Coller Capital, moderated a discussion on the impact on organisations, how private equity is adapting to this changing paradigm and how investors are effectively deploying capital in the current environment.

In this response, we have stressed that funds and fund managers should not be included in the scope of a potential digital levy proposal, and that a potential EU proposal should be consistent with OECD work and not be pushed forward while work is still ongoing on OECD proposals.

As investors in innovative and high-growth companies and start-ups, we find it crucial that a tax regime for the 21st century encourages and supports the innovation and research needed for the green and digital transition and the recovery of the European economy after the COVID-19 crisis.

In this response, we have shared our views on the European Commission’s initiative to increase convergence of national insolvency laws to encourage cross-border investment. From an investors’ perspective, we believe that harmonised rules offer transparency and clarity across the EU market and should be the goal in the long term.