Investment Funds - Update on the eligible assets for investments for UCITS

Two particularly relevant pieces of legislation in the context of eligible assets for investments by UCITS have recently been implemented in Luxembourg. The first one is the Grand-Ducal Regulation dated 8 February 2008, which amends certain definitions specified in the 2002 Law, and which replicates closely the EC Directive 2007/16/EC.
The other piece of legislation is the groundbreaking CSSF Circular 08/339 (released on 19 February 2008) which points out, inter alia, that the provisions of the above Grand-Ducal Regulation must be read in conjunction with the CESR guidelines.
Investors should first note that UCITS already set up at the time of the implementation of the guidelines will benefit from an extension until 23 July 2008 at the latest to comply with the guidelines.
However, more fundamentally, what should be raised is the somewhat more flexible attitude adopted by the CSSF, particularly in circumstances where there is further need of interpretation of the provisions of the Grand-Ducal Regulation and the CESR guidelines. The impact of this Circular should however not be overestimated since the CSSF already fully applied the provisions of the Directive and the related CESR advices, and hence no significant changes are to be expected in practice. However, this evolution of the CSSF’s practice is especially remarkable throughout the appreciation of the circumstances in which a security embeds a derivative or permitted investment within the 10% trash ratio (e.g possibility to include regulated open-ended hedge funds, funds of hedge funds, real estate funds and commodity funds). This more flexible attitude of the CSSF is also to be noted in its administrative practice.