Financial markets & services
Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFM)
After the European Parliament approved tighter controls on hedge funds and private equity firms on 17 May 2010, the EU's finance ministers gave their blessing on 18 May to a rather different proposal, leaving the European Commission with the job of forging a "dynamic compromise" by June 2010.
Market Abuse Directive (MAD)
On 28 June 2010, the European Commission launched a consultation on the revision of the Market Abuse Directive (MAD).
In 2003, the MAD, a pioneering text in the then newly established Lamfalussy process, was presented as a cornerstone of the Financial Services Action Plan (FSAP) in view to ensuring financial market integrity within the European Union.
Short Selling
During the financial crisis, EU Member States reacted differently to Short selling that they believed was creating disorderly markets and systemic risks. Member States imposed a diverse range of emergency measures using varying powers, e.g. forbidding Short selling or naked Short selling of different types of financial instruments. A number of Member States imposed no measures at all.
Target 2 Securities
What is Target 2 Securities?
Target 2 Securities, or T2S as it is often referred to, is a European Central Bank (ECB) project aiming to centralise the Settlement operation in the post trade value chain for nearly all securities on a single pan-European platform. T2S is scheduled to go live in 2013 and will dramatically reduce Settlement costs.
UCITS IV
The new European UCITS directive known as UCITS IV (DIR 2009/65/EC), was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union on June 22, 2009. This directive is intended to harmonise the rules applying to UCITS and improve their distribution within the European Union.
The directive will significantly update existing Directive 85/611/EEC by modernising the regulatory framework in order to:
