Finansinspektionen’s regulations regarding alternative investment fund managers

Finansinspektionen’s regulations regarding alternative investment fund managers

In force from 2013-07-22

Summary

The regulations target Swedish fund management companies and other undertakings that manage non-UCITS funds such as special funds, venture capital funds and real estate funds. They also apply to a limited extent to foreign managers of alternative investment funds with operations in Sweden. Through the regulation, FI is implementing the parts of the Directive 2011/61/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council that have not been implemented into Swedish law through acts and ordinances. The new regulations contain provisions about the remuneration structures of managers of alternative investment funds (AIF managers), special funds and the content of key investor information documents and prospectuses. They also regulate what shall be included in the application documents submitted to FI as well as the content of notifications. The regulations also regulate some reporting to FI.

Amendments

The amended regulations entail primarily that some provisions are clarified in relation to what needs to be specified in a business plan pursuant to EU Regulation on digital operational resilience for the financial sector.

The amendments enter into force on 17 January 2025. Amendment 2024:27

The amendments to the regulations make requirements on fund managers to have procedures for submitting certain information when they apply an adjusted fund unit value. The amendments apply to AIF managers who manage special funds.

The amendments enter into force on 1 July 2023. Amendment 2023:11

FI adds a disclosure that there are additional provisions set out in Finansinspektionen's regulations (FFFS 2022:20) regarding a pan-European personal pension product for AIF managers that are PEPP providers or PEPP distributors pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/1238 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on a pan-European Personal Pension Product (PEPP).

The amendments enter into force on 1 January 2023. Amendment 2022:22

The amendments stipulate that the provisions regarding the provision of key investor information documents and the language in these do not apply to key investor information documents that are drawn up, provided, amended and translated according to the EU regulation on key information documents for packaged retail and insurance-based investment products for non-professional investors (the PRIIP regulation).

The amendments are motivated in part by the fact that the PRIIP regulation started to be applied to actors in the fund area on 1 January 2023 and in part by the legislative amendments that the Swedish Parliament decided on 7 December 2022 due to Government Bill 2022/23:8, Key investor information documents and deadline for fund splitting.

Also amended in the regulations are the provisions regarding key investor information documents to be submitted when an AIF manager applies for authorisation to market alternative investment funds other than special funds and when a foreign AIF manager applies for authorisation to manage a special fund. Lastly, a couple of clarifications are made in Chapter 1 of the AIF regulations regarding which of the regulation's provisions apply to foreign AIF managers that conduct operations in Sweden in accordance with Chapter 5, section 2 or 11 of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Act (2013:561).

The amendments enter into force on 1 January 2023. Amendment 2022:19

A non-current reference in Chapter 13, section 1 of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Act (2013:561) has been removed.

The amendment enters into force from 1 August 2022. Amendment 2022:15

The amendments apply to AIF manager and entail in part that

Foreign AIF managers shall provide the information about the tasks performed by the managers' functions in Sweden in a durable medium

Foreign EEA-based AIF managers shall disclose their intention to terminate marketing in Sweden by providing the information on its websites

Foreign EEA-based AIF managers may use all types of digital communication or other technology for distance communication to provide remaining investors in Sweden with information when the marketing has been terminated

Swedish AIF managers shall provide Finansinspektionen with notifications of pre-marketing on paper on in a digital format

Provisions are introduced regarding how Swedish AIF managers shall document their pre-marketing.

The aim of the regulatory amendments is to implement amendments in the AIFM Directive, for which the authority has been mandated to issue regulations. The amendments enter into force from 7 June 2022. Amendments 2022:11

According to FI's regulations regarding alternative investment fund managers (the AIF regulations), AIF managers must apply parts of FI's regulations regarding securities business (the securities regulations). Since the provisions in the securities regulations were amended with regard to remuneration to or from a third party, the provisions in the AIF regulations also need to be amended.

The amendments enter into force on 8 March 2022. Amendment 2022:4

The amendments apply to special funds. They entail that AIF managers must submit no later than 31 May data on the performance of the special funds that were active on 31 December the year prior. The data must be submitted to Statistics Sweden in accordance with the procedure that applies to the collection of Profit and Loss Statements for Investment Funds.

The aim is to provide Statistics Sweden with express regulatory support to gather the data and create necessary conditions for Finansinspektionen to see the data as part of its supervision.

The amendments enter into force from 1 January 2022. Amendment 2021:34

Due to the Investment Firms Regulation (2019/2033/EU), requirements are introduced to include data regarding firms that are part of a consolidation situation pursuant to the Regulation in the business plan and in conjunction with ownership suitability assessments. Minor editorial changes were also made. The amendments enter into force on 7 July 2021. Amendment 2021:20

The amendments refer to special funds. AIF managers must report additional data to FI every quarter as part of its quarterly holdings reporting. The deadline for reporting the holdings has also been changed. FI is also introducing provisions on the annual summary for a special fund must contain information about the reviews of the remuneration policy conducted by the manager during the year. The aim is to streamline the supervision of special funds. Amendment 2020:26

The amendments apply to special funds and introduce new provisions on how to calculate the activity measure active risk. New provisions have also been inserted on how the information about the degree of activity must be presented in the funds' key investor information documents and annual reports. The objective is to make it easier for consumers to compare different funds. Amendment 2019:18

The amendments apply to special funds and introduce a number of new requirements on information in the annual reports. The aim of the amendments is to strengthen the rights of shareholders. The amendments go into effect on 25 June 2019, but are applied for the first to annual reports submitted in 2020. Amendment 2019:16

FI must amend the regulations due to amendments to Finansinspektionen's regulations and general guidelines (FFFS 2014:12) regarding prudential requirements and capital buffers. The references to sections that have been repealed have been removed.

The regulations enter into force on 15 June 2019. Amendment 2019:5

An AIF manager shall apply certain provisions in Finansinspektionen's regulations (FFFS 2017:2) regarding investment services and activities. It applies when the AIF managers

provide the sale of and advice related to structured deposits,

receive funds with a reporting obligation, and

provide advice regarding units in funds in fund operations.

AIF managers, for each special fund managed by the company, shall also report the fund's holding, net asset value and other assets and liabilities Finansinspektionen every quarter. The regulations are amended pursuant to Government Bill 2017/18:148 regarding money market funds.

The amended regulations enter into force on 1 October 2018 with regard to the reporting of holdings and with regard to the other amendments on 1 August 2018. Amendment 2018:14

Finansinspektionen is amending its regulations to adapt to the amendments to the Securities Market Act, Finansinspektionen's regulations (FFFS 2017:2) regarding investment services and activities and the Delegated Regulation for MiFID II. As a result of the amendments, AIF managers by reference must apply some of the provisions in the securities regulations. The regulations also contain changes as a result of the new Anti Money Laundering Act.

The amendments enter into force on 1 August 2017 in respect of Chapter 3, section 31, and the other amendments enter into force on 3 January 2018. Amendment 2017:7

Finansinspektionen has passed a decision to change the regulations regarding ownership, owner management and management suitability assessments. Under the new regulations, legal and natural persons must announce all sanction decisions levied against them, including decisions that are older than ten years. The statute of limitation has been removed from the new regulations. The information about the sanction decisions is provided in the forms for ownership, owner management and management suitability and are appendices to FI's regulations (FFFS 2013:10) regarding alternative investment fund managers.

Finansinspektionen also passed a decision under which non-UCITS funds and other alternative investment funds that are marketed to retail investors in Sweden are not subject to the new requirements in FFFS 2013:9 with regard to the content of prospectuses for investment funds.

The new regulations enter into force on 1 November 2016. Amendment 2016:27

FI is amending Finansinspektionen's regulations (FFFS 2013:10) regarding alternative investment fund managers (the AIFM regulations). The objective is to adapt the regulations to changes in the legislation.

A Swedish AIF manager who provides discretionary management of investment portfolios and other ancillary services in other countries within the European Economic Area (EEA) shall apply Chapter 6 of the AIFM regulations regarding Swedish AIF managers' operations in other countries. This chapter regulates in part the language in which notifications to FI must be prepared and the content of a notification of significant changes.

An AIF manager who receives and forwards orders in financial instruments must obtain information from its customers in order to be able to recommend suitable investment services and financial instruments.

The amendments enter into force on 3 July 2015. Amendment 2015:4

FI is adjusting terms and phrases in the appendices to agree with those used in the Capital Requirements Regulation. FI is also updating references to acts and regulations that have been repealed with references to the acts and regulations that replaced them. The amendments enter into force on 2 August 2014. Amendment 2014:29

Documents

FFFS 2013:10

Changes

Number

FFFS 2024:27

Date

2025-01-17

Heading

FFFS 2024:27

Number

FFFS 2023:11

Date

2023-07-01

Heading

FFFS 2023:11

Number

FFFS 2022:22

Date

2023-01-01

Heading

FFFS 2022:22

Number

FFFS 2022:19

Date

2023-01-01

Heading

FFFS 2022:19

Number

FFFS 2022:15

Date

2022-08-01

Heading

FFFS 2022:15

Number

FFFS 2022:11

Date

2022-06-07

Heading

FFFS 2022:11

Number

FFFS 2022:4

Date

2022-03-08

Heading

FFFS 2022:4

Number

FFFS 2021:34

Date

2022-01-01

Heading

FFFS 2021:34

Number

FFFS 2021:20

Date

2021-07-07

Heading

FFFS 2021:20

Number

FFFS 2020:26

Date

2021-01-01

Heading

FFFS 2020:26

Number

FFFS 2019:18

Date

2020-01-01

Heading

FFFS 2019:18

Number

FFFS 2019:16

Date

2019-06-25

Heading

FFFS 2019:16

Number

FFFS 2019:5

Date

2019-06-15

Heading

FFFS 2019:5

Number

FFFS 2018:14

Date

2018-08-01

Heading

FFFS 2018:14

Number

FFFS 2017:7

Date

2017-08-01

Heading

FFFS 2017:7

Number

FFFS 2016:27

Date

2016-11-01

Heading

FFFS 2016:27

Number

FFFS 2015:4

Date

2015-07-03

Heading

FFFS 2015:4

Number

FFFS 2014:29

Date

2014-08-02

Heading

FFFS 2014:29