In a nutshell
The Ministry of Finance has published a draft Royal Decree (the Draft royal decree) to update the Royal Decree of 7 December 2007 (the Royal Decree of 2007) on the institutional undertakings for collective investment (UCIs) with variable capital that have the sole purpose of collective investment in financial instruments and liquidity. In this respect, it has organised a public consultation from 5 until 14 May.
What’s new?
The Royal Decree of 2007 has been updated on various points. Firstly, the terminology in the Royal Decree of 2007 needed to be updated as a result of the legislative changes since 2007. The Draft royal decree now refers to the new provisions of the Law of 19 April 2014 on alternative collective investment funds and their managers (AIFM Law) instead of the old legislation.
Secondly, the Draft royal decree amends the modalities of the supervision regime to which the institutional UCI with variable capital are subjected, in order to align it with the regime that is applicable to the specialised real estate investment funds that are governed by the Royal Decree of 9 November 2016. The Draft royal decree for instance stipulates that the Ministry of Finance is authorised to deregister an institutional UCI from its list in case the concerned UCI fails to comply with the provisions of the Draft royal decree (e.g. violation of the investment policy). In this case, the institutional UCI would no longer benefit from the tax regime provided by the Draft royal decree.
Furthermore, some provisions are deleted because they overlap with the obligations of the AIFM Law, such as the obligation to appoint a depositary or the obligation to appoint an external manager.
What’s next?
The public consultation has been closed and a final version of the texts is expected to be published in the Belgian Official Gazette in the upcoming weeks.
Any questions? Don’t hesitate to contact us.
Related links
The Report to the King accompanying the Draft royal decree
