CHAPTER VII

OBLIGATIONS CONCERNING THE INVESTMENT POLICIES OF UCITS
Article 51
1
A management or investment company shall employ a risk-management process which enables it to monitor and measure at any time the risk of the positions and their contribution to the overall risk profile of the portfolio of a UCITS. In particular, it shall not solely or mechanistically rely on credit ratings issued by credit rating agencies as defined in Article 3(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of
16 September 2009
on credit rating agencies
, for assessing the creditworthiness of the UCITS’ assets.
It shall employ a process for accurate and independent assessment of the value of OTC derivatives.
It shall communicate to the competent authorities of its home Member State regularly in regard to the types of derivative instruments, the underlying risks, the quantitative limits and the methods which are chosen in order to estimate the risks associated with transactions in derivative instruments regarding each managed UCITS.
Competent authorities shall ensure that all information received under the third paragraph aggregated in respect of all the management or investment companies they supervise is accessible to ESMA in accordance with Article 35 of the Regulation (EU) No 1095/2010, and the European Systemic Risk Board (the
‘
ESRB
’
) established by Regulation (EU) No 1092/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of
24 November 2010
on European Union macro-prudential oversight of the financial system and establishing a European Systemic Risk Board
in accordance with Article 15 of that Regulation for the purpose of monitoring systemic risks at Union level.
2
Member States may authorise UCITS to employ techniques and instruments relating to transferable securities and money market instruments under the conditions and within the limits which they lay down provided that such techniques and instruments are used for the purpose of efficient portfolio management.
When those operations concern the use of derivative instruments, the conditions and limits shall conform to the provisions laid down in this Directive.
Under no circumstances shall those operations cause the UCITS to diverge from its investment objectives as laid down in the UCITS’ fund rules, instruments of incorporation or prospectus.
3
A UCITS shall ensure that its global exposure relating to derivative instruments does not exceed the total net value of its portfolio.
The exposure is calculated taking into account the current value of the underlying assets, the counterparty risk, future market movements and the time available to liquidate the positions. This shall also apply to the third and fourth subparagraphs.
A UCITS may invest, as a part of its investment policy and within the limit laid down in Article 52(5), in financial derivative instruments provided that the exposure to the underlying assets does not exceed in aggregate the investment limits laid down in Article 52. Member States may provide that, when a UCITS invests in index-based financial derivative instruments, those investments are not required to be combined for the purposes of the limits laid down in Article 52.
When transferable securities or money market instruments embed a derivative, the derivative shall be taken into account when complying with the requirements of this Article.
3a
Taking into account the nature, scale and complexity of the UCITS’ activities, the competent authorities shall’ monitor the adequacy of the credit assessment processes of the management or investment companies, assess the use of references to credit ratings, as referred to in the first subparagraph of paragraph 1, in the UCITS’ investment policies and, where appropriate, encourage mitigation of the impact of such references, with a view to reducing sole and mechanistic reliance on such credit ratings.
4
Without prejudice to Article 116, the Commission shall adopt, by means of delegated acts
in accordance with Article 112a
, measures specifying the following:
a
criteria for assessing the adequacy of the risk-management process employed by the management or investment company in accordance with the first subparagraph of paragraph 1;
b
detailed rules regarding the accurate and independent assessment of the value of OTC derivatives; and
c
detailed rules regarding the content of and procedure to be followed for communicating the information referred to in the third subparagraph of paragraph 1 to the competent authorities of the management company's home Member State.
The criteria referred to in point (a) of the first subparagraph shall ensure that the management or investment company is prevented from relying solely or mechanistically on credit ratings, as referred to in the first subparagraph of paragraph 1, for assessing the creditworthiness of the UCITS’ assets.
5
In order to ensure uniform conditions of application of this Article, ESMA may develop draft implementing technical standards to determine the conditions of application of the delegated acts adopted by the Commission regarding the criteria and rules referred to in paragraph 4.
Power is conferred on the Commission to adopt the implementing technical standards referred to in the first subparagraph in accordance with Article 15 of Regulation (EU) No 1095/2010.
OJ L 302, 17.11.2009, p. 1 .
OJ L 331, 15.12.2010, p. 1 .
Substituted by Directive 2014/91/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 amending Directive 2009/65/EC on the coordination of laws, regulations and administrative provisions relating to undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities (UCITS) as regards depositary functions, remuneration policies and sanctions (Text with EEA relevance).
Inserted by Directive 2010/78/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010 amending Directives 98/26/EC, 2002/87/EC, 2003/6/EC, 2003/41/EC, 2003/71/EC, 2004/39/EC, 2004/109/EC, 2005/60/EC, 2006/48/EC, 2006/49/EC and 2009/65/EC in respect of the powers of the European Supervisory Authority (European Banking Authority), the European Supervisory Authority (European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority) and the European Supervisory Authority (European Securities and Markets Authority) (Text with EEA relevance).
Substituted by Directive 2010/78/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010 amending Directives 98/26/EC, 2002/87/EC, 2003/6/EC, 2003/41/EC, 2003/71/EC, 2004/39/EC, 2004/109/EC, 2005/60/EC, 2006/48/EC, 2006/49/EC and 2009/65/EC in respect of the powers of the European Supervisory Authority (European Banking Authority), the European Supervisory Authority (European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority) and the European Supervisory Authority (European Securities and Markets Authority) (Text with EEA relevance).
Substituted by Directive 2013/14/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013 amending Directive 2003/41/EC on the activities and supervision of institutions for occupational retirement provision, Directive 2009/65/EC on the coordination of laws, regulations and administrative provisions relating to undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities (UCITS) and Directive 2011/61/EU on Alternative Investment Funds Managers in respect of over-reliance on credit ratings (Text with EEA relevance).
Inserted by Directive 2013/14/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013 amending Directive 2003/41/EC on the activities and supervision of institutions for occupational retirement provision, Directive 2009/65/EC on the coordination of laws, regulations and administrative provisions relating to undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities (UCITS) and Directive 2011/61/EU on Alternative Investment Funds Managers in respect of over-reliance on credit ratings (Text with EEA relevance).