Ireland: Publication Of Guidelines On IMR Reporting Obligations

As readers will no doubt be aware, the new investor money regime for fund service providers ("FSPs")¹ is coming into effect on 1 July 2016. The statutory basis for the new investor money regime is contained in the Central Bank (Supervision and Enforcement Act, 2013 (Section 48(1)) Investor Money Regulations, 2015 for Fund Service Providers (the "Investor Money Regulations").

The Investor Money Regulations introduce a number of reporting obligations for FSPs which fall within scope of the new regime. In order to assist FSPs with their reporting obligations the Central Bank published "Guidelines on IMR Reporting Obligations for Funds Service Providers" (the "Guidelines") on 16 June 2016.

In this regard the Central Bank developed the Investor Money Reporting Form (the "Return") to facilitate breach and incident reporting by FSPs. An outline of the Return is contained as an appendix to the Guidelines. The Return is a word document in which FSPs are required to provide detailed information on the issue reported. The Return should be uploaded to the "Other Documents" category under the FSPs Online Reporting System reporting profile. Examples of reportable matters under the Investor Money Regulations include any actual or potential breaches of the Investor Money Regulations, material reconciliation differences, material funding requirements and a copy of the report prepared by the external auditor.

In the context of breaches the Guidelines provide that FSPs should notify the Central Bank as soon as they become aware of an IMR breach, potential breach or other reportable matter relating to IMR. In addition, there is an obligation on FSPs to submit an updated Return after the initial Return is submitted where more relevant information becomes available on the background of how the issue occurred, its impact on the FSP or the FSPs action plan to address the issue. The Guidelines also provide that FSPs should make their own assessment of the materiality of reportable matters and this should be documented in the FSPs Investor Money Management Plan.

The Guidelines can be found at the Central Banks website at the following link: https://www.centralbank.ie/regulation/ClientAssetsandInvestorMoney/InvestorMoneyRegulations/ Documents/June 2016 – IMR Reporting GuidanceNote.pdf

Footnotes

1  The term FSP includes fund administrators, depositaries, UCITS Management Companies and Alternative Investment Fund Managers.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.