Legal Updates

Key Points to Note:

• The Central Bank of Ireland has published its updated template fund profile return and guidance
• The deadline for the fund profile return is 31 July 2022
• It has also published its template return and guidance for the In-Situ PCF Return
• The deadline for the In-Situ PCF Return is 30 June 2022

In this briefing, we outline some of the upcoming regulatory filings applicable to Irish authorised investment funds (“Funds”) and Irish management companies which must be submitted to the Central Bank of Ireland (“Central Bank”) over the coming months.

Fund Profile Return

On 3 May 2022, the Central Bank released an updated Fund Profile Return (the “Return”) along with its updated Guidance document.

The Return should be submitted by all Irish Funds to the Central Bank via its Online Reporting System (“ONR”) by 31 July 2022.

There are a number of substantive changes in the Return that Funds should note.

Specific Asset Exposures

The Return has introduced a new question requiring Funds to provide information on their exposure to specific asset exposures in the preceding year. These asset classes are as follows:

Contingent Convertible Bonds1	Mini Bonds
Catastrophe Bonds	Contracts for Difference
Reverse Factoring	Mortgaged Backed Securities
Collaterized Debt Obligations	Collaterized Mortgage Obligations
Cryptocurrency	Digital Tokens
Digital Coins	Structured Notes
SPACs	Art
Royalties

The provision of this additional information will allow the Central Bank to monitor exposure to such asset classes more closely, reflecting their concerns around the risks associated with these asset classes which they outlined earlier this year in their Securities Markets Risk Outlook Report 2022².

SFDR

The Return introduces a new section on Fund Classification under the SFDR³. Funds must now disclose in the Return whether they are classified as Article 6, Article 8 and Article 9 Funds.

Action Points

Any new Fund authorised by the Central Bank after 30 April 2022 must complete and submit the Return within 10 working days of the Fund’s authorisation date.

For Funds already authorised/approved as of 30 April 2022, the Return should report information on the Fund’s exposures as of 30 April, 2022. This Return must be submitted by 31 July 2022.

Going forward, the Return will require Funds to report information as of 31 December of the previous year and will be due to be filed with the Central Bank by 28/29 February in each year.

In-Situ PCF Return

As outlined in our previous briefing, on 5th April 2022, the Central Bank published the Amending Regulations and related Feedback Statement under which certain changes were made to its fitness and probity regime.

Funds and fund management companies must make certain In-Situ PCF Return filings (the “In-Situ PCF Return”) via the ONR by 30 June 2022⁴.

Individuals performing PCF-2B, PCF-16 and/or PCF-52 must be identified to the Central Bank via the In-Situ PCF Return. Where applicable, the In-Situ PCF Return must confirm that due diligence has been carried out on those individuals.

The Central Bank has confirmed that verification that due diligence has been carried out must be provided to the Central Bank in the following circumstances:

• Where an individual is performing a PCF-16 role in a non-EEA country;

• Where an individual holds a PCF-52 role and have not been previously approved by the Central Bank.

It has also confirmed that verification that due diligence has been carried out is not required to be provided to the Central Bank in the following circumstances:

• Where a PCF-2B previously held a PCF-2 role;

• For PCF-12 roles; and

• Where a PCF-52 held a PCF-15 role on 5 April 2022.

In the above instances, the PCF In-Situ Return requires only the name and identification details of a given PCF.

If you have any questions relating to this briefing, please get in touch with your usual Dillon Eustace contact.

1 Commonly referred to as “Coco Bonds”.

2 For further details, please refer to our recent briefing.

3 Regulation (EU) 2019/2088.

4 The filing deadline initially published by the Central Bank for the In-Situ PCF Return was 3 June 2022 however this was subsequently extended to 30 June 2022.