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ARTICLE · 13 NOVEMBER 2013

UCITS Report - Can A Leopard Change Its Spots?

GVZH Advocates
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The European UCITS brand is a seal of quality recognised in financial centres the world over, spanning from Asia to the Americas

MaltaFinance and Banking
Andrew Zammit
Andrew Zammit
Kurt Hyzler
Kurt Hyzler
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The European UCITS brand is a seal of quality recognised in financial centres the world over, spanning from Asia to the Americas. The widespread appeal of Ucits-compliant funds exists notwithstanding the significant additional compliance burden that is pinned unto UCITS-compliant managers. This is a success story that began in 1985 and has undergone three subsequent and significant amendments, with another one, possibly two, in the regulatory pipeline.

Each amending directive brought more flavour to the initial and somewhat restrictive UCITS framework. What initially started off as a framework for retail collective investment schemes pursuing plain-vanilla equity and bond strategies gradually evolved into a platform for the development of investment strategies that are more akin to those sought by hedge funds. The Product Directive (Directive 2001/108/EC of 21 January 2002) broadened the scope of "eligible assets" to include Financial Derivative Instruments,

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