Offering of Swiss securities funds in Germany
Securities funds are only entitled to use the notification procedure if:
- the fund management company/SICAV does not delegate investment decisions to either the custodian bank or other companies whose interests may conflict with those of the fund manager/SICAV or investors (Art. 35 para. 2 FinIA);
- FINMA has verified that the provisions of the fund contract/investment regulations comply with the law. This applies to fund contracts/investment regulations or amendments to them approved by FINMA after 1 March 2013 (Art. 35a para. 3 and/or Art. 41 para. 2ter and/or Art. 62b CISO).
If the fund documents do not currently meet one or both of these conditions, the fund manager/SICAV can ask FINMA to approve the fund contract/investment regulations or the required changes to them. In this request, FINMA is asked to verify that all provisions comply with the law.
If a fund management company intends to offer units of one of its securities funds in Germany, it must submit a notification to this effect to FINMA by email (effektenfonds-deutschland@finma.ch). A notification letter and the key fund documents in German must be attached to the email. BaFin has summarised the relevant requirements, both material and formal, in the "Information sheet (2013) on the distribution of units in EU UCITS in Germany in accordance with § 310 Investment Code (KAGB)" (Merkblatt (2013) zum Vertrieb von Anteilen an EU-OGAW in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland gemäss § 310 Kapitalanlagegesetzbuch (KAGB)) (BaFin information sheet, in German).
A notification letter based on the template in Appendix I of Ordinance (EU) No. 584/20101 must be drawn up (see also the BaFin information sheet). Once the notification has been submitted in full, FINMA sends the documents to BaFin by email and informs the fund manager accordingly. The fund management company is entitled to offer units in the securities funds in Germany as soon as it has been informed that FINMA has sent the documents.
The fund manager/SICAV must inform BaFin directly by email of any changes or amendments to the fund documents of Swiss securities funds offered in Germany.
Information
The following guidelines are available:
