In a report released today, the International Council of Securities Associations (ICSA), the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA), and the Managed Funds Association (MFA) call for the implementation of internationally recognized principles to address excessively high market data fees and unfair licensing provisions.  

EFAMA has submitted its response to the European Commission's consultations on the review of the MIFID II / MIFIR regulatory framework, where it has outlined its recommendations on investor protection and capital markets and infrastructure.

EFAMA's Director General Tanguy van de Werve commented:

EFAMA in collaboration with SWIFT, has published a new report on the evolution of automation and standardisation rates of fund orders received by transfer agents (TAs) in the cross-border fund centres of Luxembourg and Ireland - during the first half of 2019.

The report highlights the progress made towards the increased automation of the amount of fund orders, and the use of ISO standards. Twenty-eight TAs from Ireland and Luxembourg participated in this survey.

The key findings of the report include:

EFAMA welcomes the recent statement by Ashley Alder, IOSCO Board Chair, on liquidity risk management for investment funds.

EFAMA recently finalised a Comment Paper in response to the ECBs November 2018 findings around liquidity and counterparty risks in ETFs, included in the ECBs semi-annual Financial Stability Review.

We welcome yesterday's vote by the European Parliament plenary, formally adopting the trilogue agreement on the Commission's initiative to remove cross-border barriers to the distribution of investment funds.

This marks a decisive recognition of the need to postpone the application of the PRIIPs disclosure regime for UCITS by two years, in light of the regime's documented shortcomings. It also allows the European Commission more time to conduct a thorough review of the same within one year.

The Committees vote confirmed important amendments to the Commissions original proposal, i.e. extending the premarketing definition to established EU AIFs and removing the numerical thresholds conditioning the de-notification of funds from host jurisdictions.