[16234]
September 10, 2003
TO: INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE No. 60-03
RE: REPORT OF THE UCITS CONTACT COMMITTEE ON THE SIMPLIFIED
PROSPECTUS
In July 2003, the UCITS Contact Committee adopted a final report on the simplified
prospectus. We recently have obtained a copy of the report, which is attached. Because the
report is not available publicly, we ask members not to circulate the report.
Under Article 27 of the UCITS Directive, a UCITS fund must provide a simplified
prospectus, which includes key information about the fund in summary form. The UCITS
Contact Committee, which is required to assist the Commission with respect to the uniform
application of the Directive, created a task force to develop a common interpretation of the
contents of the simplified prospectus.
Specifically, the Committee requested that the Task Force’s report cover several issues,
including: (1) the definition and presentation of information on investment strategy and risk
profile; (2) the definition and presentation of performance, including the use of benchmarks; (3)
the definition and presentation of costs (fees/commissions), including use of the total expense
ratio, and (4) other crucial aspects, such as umbrella funds, exchange-traded funds, and
taxation.
The report is intended to provide the main conclusions of the Task Force and to identify
areas where agreement could be reached among the Task Force members and potential
compromises where there was controversy among members.
The report affirmed that, regardless of areas in which compromises could not be
reached, the simplified prospectus must be accepted by all Member States and that host
Member States may not request additional information from a UCITS fund beyond what is
required in the simplified prospectus.
Jennifer S. Choi
Associate Counsel
Attachment (in .pdf format)