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.

"Investors seeking to gain initial exposure to private investments should actively consider secondaries, rather than funds-of-funds, as the very first step to constructing a long-term private equity portfolio"

"In collaboration with Rockefeller Asset Management and Casey Clark, CFA (MBA '17), the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business examine the relationship between ESG and financial performance in more than 1,000 research papers from 2015 – 2020."

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.

University of Chicago, University of Maryland, University of California, University of Michigan, Harvard Business School: "We examine thousands of U.S. private equity (PE) buyouts from 1980 to 2013, a period that saw huge swings in credit market tightness and GDP growth. Our results show striking, systematic differences in the real-side effects of PE buyouts, depending on buyout type and external conditions."

University of British Columbia & Stanford University: With production supported by Invest Europe, this paper looks at the Economic Impact of Venture Capital in the USA.

A transparent study of private equity returns. The findings show that European private equity strongly outperformed listed equity benchmarks to the end of 2020, underlining the industry’s resilience during the COVID-19 crisis and its consistent ability to support the long-term investors that guarantee the pensions and savings of European citizens.

"This report is the result of a pilot project that aims to highlight the sustainability work that is being conducted and that has been conducted by the private equity in Sweden for many years. The initiative is one way to demonstrate the concrete activities that are ongoing – and measuring these activities – with the intention of showing progress over time"

"The Private Equity Confidence Survey has been tracking the changing sentiments of the Central European investment community every six months since 2003. Deloitte Central Europe proudly presents the latest report which marks the 37th edition of the programme."