On 1 July 2019, Luxembourg’s financial regulatory body, the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), published Circular 19/721 (the “Circular“) to inform the supervised entities of the dematerialisation of requests to the CSSF.

 The Circular applies to supervised entities, including but not limited to:

  • Undertakings for collective investment (UCIs) subject to Part II of the Luxembourg Law of 17 December 2010 relating to undertakings for collective investment, as amended;
  • Specialised Investment Funds (SIFs) subject to the Luxembourg Law of 13 February 2007 relating to specialised investment funds, as amended;
  • Investment Companies in Risk Capital (SICARs) subject to the Luxembourg Law of 15 June 2004 relating to the investment company in risk capital, as amended;
  • Regulated securitization undertakings (”Securitization Vehicles”) subject to the Luxembourg Law of 22 March 2004 on securitisation, as amended; and
  • Alternative Investment Funds Managers (AIFMs) subject to Luxembourg Law of 12 July 2013 on Alternative Investment Fund Managers.

 Part II UCIs, SIFs, and SICARs are collectively referred to as the “Supervised Investment Funds”. The Securitization Vehicles and AIFMs are collectively referred to as “Other Supervised Entities”. The “Supervised Investment Funds” and the “Other Supervised Entities” are referred collectively to as the “Supervised Entities” and individually as a “Supervised Entity”.

 As from the publication of the Circular, the Supervised Entities must use the CCSF electronic desk portal (“eDesk Portal”) for all requests listed and published on the homepage of the eDesk Portal.

 Each Supervised Entity shall ensure that it has a policy and/or procedure in place to check the eDesk Portal’s homepage themselves on a regular basis to keep informed of any update to the list of requests.

 Such policy and/or procedure shall also provide for the appointment of one or more advanced users from among the employees of the Supervised Entity or agents responsible for validating the connection of users to the Supervised Entity and for managing the users, according to the procedure described here: https://www.cssf.lu/edesk.

 Each Supervised Entity shall also ensure that all requests applicable to it are completed appropriately and in due time via the eDesk Portal.

 As of today, only the PRIIPs assessment request is on the eDesk Portal. “PRIIPs” refers to Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 1286/2014 (the “PRIIPs Regulation”).

 Pursuant to CSSF press release 19/28 dated 1 July 2019, Supervised Investment Funds shall complete a PRIIPs online assessment via the eDesk Portal by no later than 31 October 2019. This online assessment shall replace the previous published document entitled “self-assessment confirmation on exclusive professional investor status under the PRIIPs Regulation”. The Supervised Investment Funds which have already provided the CSSF with the previously published self-assessment are not exempted from this requirement to send the new document, dully completed, to the CSSF as the new document contains further questions on various issues.

 The online assessment access will initially be limited to central administrations. Access rights will be given to management companies by the end of July 2019 and to other entities/persons at a later stage.

 Reserved Alternative Investment Funds (RAIFs) subject to the Law of 23 July 2013 on Reserved Alternative Investment Funds (the “RAIF Law”), are not supervised by the CSSF. Consequently, RAIFs are not required to complete a PRIIPs online assessment.

 As of today, the following certificates cannot yet be requested via the eDesk Portal:

  • UCITS/ESMA certificate required for marketing in an EU Member State other than the country of origin; and
  • AIFM/ESMA certificate (Directive 2011/61/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2011 on Alternative Investment Fund Managers).

 For the time being, requests for these certificates should be submitted via secure channels (e-file or SOFIE) using the appropriate procedures.

For any other information or queries, please contact Me Renaud Le Squeren or Virginie Leroy (Solicitor)