Publications
& Policy

The Markets in Financial Instruments legislation (split into the MiFID Directive and the MiFIR Regulation) covers both business conduct and organisational requirements for investment firms, as well as authorisation requirements for public markets and rules on the admission of financial instruments to trading.

In this response we argue that changes should be made to the definition of a "professional investor upon request" to better acknowledge the features of long-term & sophisticated investors in asset classes such as private equity. We also describe to the European Commission our concerns with the current retail disclosure documents, which are too standardised to give investors an appropriate idea of the real risk and benefits of long-term investments.

This long awaited official Guidance from the European Commission clarifies the application of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR).

From our industry’s perspective, the letter clarifies that SFDR does apply to all AIFMs carrying out activities in the EU (including those gaining access through NPPRs), and clarifies the definitions of Article 8 and 9 products.

Ahead of the forthcoming AIFMD review, Invest Europe joined forces with other trade associations, such as AIMA, ACC and Inrev, to express our concerns to the European Commission on any changes policymakers are considering making to the AIFMD delegation regime. The letter explains, among others, how the EU benefits from the global nature of the fund management industry and that the EU fund management regulatory framework is robust and fit for purpose.

In this response, we comment on changes that have been introduced by the European Commission as well as present our own suggestions for Guidelines to fully play their role in allowing Member States to deliver aid to innovative and growing companies by providing targeted support to the private venture and growth funds that invest in them.

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.