Marketing in Finland of units of collective investment undertakings: Notification procedure
Collective investment undertakings fulfilling the requirements of the UCITS Directive (2009/65/EC) – UCITS funds
A UCITS refers to an undertaking for collective investment transferable securities, as referred to in the UCITS Directive, constituted in accordance with contract law (as common funds managed by management companies), trust law (as unit trusts), or statute (as investment companies) (section 2, subsection 1, paragraph 10 of the Mutual Funds Act). Units of UCITS are regarded as securities in accordance with chapter 1, section 2, subsection 1, paragraph 5 of the Securities Markets Act (495/1989, SMA).
UCITS funds registered in other EEA countries than Finland may market their units in Finland in accordance with the notification procedure (Regulation EU 584/2010; Directive 2009/65/EC, articles 91–96).
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The UCITS submits the notification letter to the competent authority of its home country with its annexes and translations, if any.
The competent authority of the home country inspects the material and submits it to the Financial Supervisory Authority (FIN-FSA) for information purposes.
NOTE! UCITS operating in the EEA countries must familiarise themselves with instructions on the website of the competent authority of its home country on the notification procedure.
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Documents needed in the notification procedure
Notification letter
The UCITS must submit the notification letter with its document annexes concerning the commencement of marketing in Finland to the competent regulator of its home country. The notification letter must be prepared in accordance with the standard model in the English language and submitted in an electronic format.
Annex documents of the notification letter
The abovementioned notification letter must be accompanied by the following documents as annexes:
- The fund rules or instruments of incorporation of the UCITS, its prospectus and, where appropriate, its latest annual report and any subsequent half-yearly reports. The documents must be submitted translated into Finnish, Swedish or English.
- The Key Investor Information Document (KIID) in Finnish or Swedish.
- An attestation granted by the competent home state authority to the effect that the UCITS fulfils the conditions imposed by the UCITS Directive (2009/65/EC) (so-called UCITS attestation). The attestation must be submitted in the English language.
Filing of documents to FIN-FSA
The notification letter and the annexed documents and translations, if any, must be in an electronic format. The email message must list the annexed documents, which must be in a commonly used format (pdf) that can be opened and printed. The maximum size of the email message is 30 MB.
The regulator of the home country of the UCITS submits the complete notification letter with its annexes to the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority as described above.
Commencement of marketing
The UCITS may commence marketing of its units in Finland as of the date when the competent authorities of its home country have informed the UCITS that the documents referred to above have been delivered to the (Finnish) Financial Supervisory Authority.
Changes to the information in the notification letter and annexes
The UCITS must notify FIN-FSA of any changes to the annexed documents referred to above and indicate where they are available in an electronic format. In addition, the amended documents must be submitted to FIN-FSA in an electronic format. Only documents in electronic format are taken into account.
In the event of a change in the information regarding the arrangements made for marketing communicated in the notification letter, or a change regarding share classes to be marketed, the UCITS shall give written notice thereof to FIN-FSA in an electronic format before implementing the change.
The notice shall be delivered to the address funds(at)finanssivalvonta.fi.
Termination of marketing
Before terminating the marketing of units, the UCITS must inform FIN-FSA of its decision and publish an announcement to that effect in at least one national newspaper. The announcement is to provide information on
- the manner in which payments will be made to unit-holders in the future
- the manner and place in which redemption claims concerning the units are to be presented and
- how and where the documents and information which the collective investment undertaking is required to publish are kept available.
The notice shall be delivered to the address funds(at)finanssivalvonta.fi.
Processing deadlines
The competent authority has ten (10) business days to review the complete notification letter and the annexes, to prepare a UCITS attestation and to send the notification letter and the annexes to the host country. The processing deadline is calculated as of the reception of the complete notification letter.
The competent authority sends a notice immediately to the UCITS when the notification letter has been sent to the competent authority of the host country. The UCITS may begin to market its units in the host country upon reception of the notice referred to above.
10 November 2011