Central Bank of Ireland publishes Markets Update No 10 of 2024

On 1 November 2024, the Central Bank of Ireland (the Central Bank) published Issue No 10 2024 of its regular Markets Update, in which it sets out alerts of interest to Irish regulated firms and other market participants.

For our summaries of the previous issues, please see the Related Articles at the foot of this page.

The new Update contains four items:

• ESMA, the European Commission and the ECB joint statement on shortening the standard securities settlement cycle

On 15 October 2024, ESMA, the European Commission and the ECB published a joint statement, “Shortening the standard securities settlement cycle in the European Union: next steps”.

The statement anticipates some of the conclusions of the report on this topic, which ESMA has been mandated to submit (and which is expected “in the coming months”) and highlights the need for fast action if the EU wants to avoid prolonging and amplifying the negative impacts of the misalignment with major jurisdictions internationally.

The statement also notes that ESMA, the Commission, the ECB and NCAs have agreed to establish a governance structure, incorporating the EU financial industry, as soon as possible to oversee and support the technical preparations of any future move to T+1.

• ESG Fund names Guidelines – update on Streamlined Filing Process for UCITS and AIFs

As we reported at the time, Markets Update No 8 of 2024 announced a new streamlined filing process for updates to fund names based on the requirements set out in ESMA’s Guidelines on fund names using ESG or sustainability-related terms (the Guidelines).

On 1 November 2024, Central Bank updated this process to reflect implementation of the Guidelines (which come into effect from 21 November 2024).

The update enables funds to incorporate minor changes to disclosure in their offering and pre-contractual documentation where these are made solely to bring the fund into compliance with the requirements of the Guidelines.

The process for making such filings can be found in the Central Bank’s process clarification document.

• Central Bank updates its UCITS Q&As

On 1 November 2024, the Central Bank published the 41st Edition of the UCITS Q&A, revising Q&As ID 1012, ID 1016, and ID 1088 (in the section entitled ‘UCITS ETF’) to reflect changes enabling the ETF naming requirement at the share class level.

• Requirements for establishing an open-ended ELTIF with limited liquidity

On 1 November 2024, the Central Bank updated its ELTIF application form to reflect the coming into force of Level 2 RTS in relation to establishing open-ended ELTIFs. The update also concerns information on the authorisation process for ELTIFs.

Where an AIFM wishes to

• establish an open-ended ELTIF (in the form of either a Professional Investor ELTIF or a Qualified Investor ELTIF) with limited liquidity and
• take advantage of the 24 hour authorisation process

it must make a pre-submission to fundsauthorisation@centralbank.ie in good time prior to the requested authorisation.

The pre-submission must address:

• the possibility of redemptions during the life of the ELTIF
• the possibility of redemptions which are more frequent than quarterly (where relevant) and
• the provision of a notice period of less than 3 months (again, where relevant).

Once cleared, the ELTIF will proceed to authorisation in the normal course.
Retail Investor ELTIFs should include the above details in their initial filing with the Central Bank.