No Man’s Sky

The UK in collaboration with India’s Bharti Enterprises have won a joint bid for the satellite broadband operator OneWeb. This will go into direct competition with Elon Musk’s Starlink. They…

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Eyes Wide Shut

Confirmation Bias can be defined as the tendency to search for, interpret, favour, and recall information that confirms or supports one’s prior personal beliefs or values. As the Wirecard scandal…

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June 2020 Round-up

This month’s regulatory round-up pulls together some interesting regulatory developments we have tracked throughout June. The past month brought a number of important developments, particularly on the EU Money Market Fund Regulation, with ESMA publishing updated reporting instructions, and translations to the MMF guidelines.

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The Liquidity Mismatch

This month marked one year since the collapse of Neil Woodford’s LF Woodford Equity Income fund. The Woodford fund was suspended in June, after it became overwhelmed by redemption requests from investors. One year on and investors are still awaiting their final pay-out. One year on and questions concerning the liquidity mismatches in open-ended funds still remain.

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ESMA up the Ante

ESMA recently published a supervisory briefing on the supervision by National Competent Authorities (NCAs) of costs applicable to Undertakings for the Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) and Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs). The briefing was response to the need to improve convergence across NCAs in the approach to undue costs.

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Down To The Wire

“Its always in the last place you look”, “it’s probably where you left it”, “check down the back of the sofa” These are statements that are usually helpful when we…

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Depositary Oversight

As discussed in previous blogs, later this year new FCA rules for open-ended funds investing in inherently illiquid assets enters into force. The new rules concern non-UCITS retail schemes (NURS) that invest in inherently illiquid assets. Although the new rules are relevant to anyone with an interest in open-ended investment funds that are likely to hold illiquid assets, here we will be focusing on the enhanced oversight of depositaries.

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