For immediate release: Thursday 29 June 2006 

CESR NOTIFICATION GUIDELINES – ONLY THE FIRST STEP TO A REAL EUROPEAN PASSPORT FOR FUNDS

The Investment Management Association (IMA) is disappointed that, in its final guidelines on the notification regime for UCITS published today, the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) has not made more progress in facilitating the single market for investment funds. It is therefore very important that CESR has committed to review whether the guidelines really improve the ability to passport UCITS.

Sheila Nicoll, Deputy Chief Executive of the IMA commented:

“Since it is now evident that CESR is not able to go further, we expect the Commission to take robust steps to simplify the European legal framework for notification. In the meantime we need to do everything we can to improve the existing system. In particular, CESR members should do their utmost to reduce bureaucracy and speed up the process in the interests of European investors.

We call on CESR to be transparent as to how long the process takes in different Member States and what the bottlenecks are. In order to show that progress is being made we believe CESR should publish annual reports on the situation in each jurisdiction.”

-Ends-

For further information, please contact:
Helen Stephenson, Communications Officer, IMA  020 7831 0898

Out of hours contact:
Mona Patel, Head of Communications, IMA  07834 089332