Consob, with Resolution no. 21508 of 22 September 2020 [only Italian version], following the consultation with the financial market, made some changes to Consob Regulation no. 11971/1999 (Issuers Regulation) on the admission to trading of reserved open-ended AIFs (Alternative Investment Funds), as well as further interventions on the marketing of AIFs and advertising activities.

The amendments are mainly aimed at better defining the regulatory framework applicable in the admission to trading on a regulated market of reserved open-ended AIFs:

(i) establishing when it is required the listing prospectus, drawn up according to the scheme provided for in the specific annex of the Issuers Regulation and when, instead, Consob may recognize a prospectus drawn up according to the provisions of another Member State by requesting, in addition, the publication a listing document;

(ii) coordinating the regulation of the prospectus with that of the marketing, on a domestic and cross-border basis, provided for by the AIFMD (Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive) and by the related implementation provisions with a particular reference to cases in which the marketing and admission to trading are contextual;

(iii) reviewing the contents of the prospectus and listing document layout in order to make them expressly applicable also to open-ended reserved AIFs;

(iv) updating the provisions on the information that open-end collective investment schemes (UCIs) admitted to trading on a regulated market are required to make available through publication on the fund manager's website and on the market manager's website.

Alongside these changes, further regulatory interventions have been made regarding the marketing of AIFs and advertising activities relating to financial products other than securities. In particular, having regard to this last aspect, the Article no. 34-novies, paragraph 1, letter c), in order to clarify that the advertising report with the indication of the returns achieved by the proposed investment, makes a comparison with the reference parameter or with the return target, where these are identified in the prospectus. In this way it is clarified that the comparison can take place not only with a benchmark consisting of an index, but also with a return target, where this is indicated in the prospectus. This intervention ensures consistency between the provisions of the Issuers Regulation and the indications formulated by ESMA in the context of the Q&A on the application of the UCITS directive (relating to collective investment schemes in transferable securities).

Relazione illustrativa (23 settembre 2020) [only Italian version]

Delibera n. 21508 del 22 settembre 2020 [only Italian version]

Osservazioni al documento di consultazione del 9 dicembre 2019 (23 settembre 2020) [only Italian version]

Documento di consultazione del 9 dicembre 2019 [only Italian version]