AMF wants to ban transaction fees

31/05/2022

AMF (Autorité des Marchés Financiers) announces changes to its general regulations and its doctrine on transaction fees and the marketing of funds.

Click here to discover them.

A first measure concerns the prohibition of transaction fees. It aims to eliminate the possibility for UCITS1 and AIF2 managers to benefit from transaction fees, with the exception of transaction fees on real estate assets. To allow management companies to adapt their systems, these amendments will apply as of 1 January 2026.

An amendment to the AMF’s general regulations was approved by order of 16 May 2022 of the Minister of Economy, Finance and Recovery, published on 19 May 2022. Click here to read it.

A second measure concerns the marketing of active funds considered as having high fees in view of their similarity to the performance of their benchmark; as well as passive funds with high fees.

  • For active funds, Investment service providers must set up procedures in order to be able to identify funds with high fees in relation to their tracking error vis-à-vis their benchmark.

  • For passive funds, the AMF also specifies that the Investment Service Providers must have policies and procedures to compare the level of fees of funds with a passive investment objective with that of comparable funds in order to determine whether collective investments less expensive equivalents are likely to match their client’s profile.

These new provisions of the AMF are applicable to Investment Service Providers from 1 January 2023.

Click here to read the AMF’s updated doctrine.

1 UCITS: Undertakings for Collective Investments in Transferable Securities 
2 AIF: Alternative Investment Funds

Christian de Beaufort, Market Infrastructures & Regulation, SGSS