MAKING THE MOST OF UCITS IV

Lastly, depending on the target countries of distribution, you might have to appoint local agents. For instance, you will have to appoint a local paying agent and a local information agent if you wish to market your funds in Germany or Switzerland, whereas in France you will be requested to appoint a centralising agent. POST-REGISTRATION DUTIES Once funds are registered, another key challenge will be to maintain that registered status in the various countries of distribution. You will have to cope with a series of specific financial reporting, statistical reporting and publication requirements, with specific formats differing from one country to another and translation requirements. Thus, in Germany andAustria, you will have to provide a specific and com- plex tax reporting if you want your foreign funds to be fiscally as attractive as domestic funds to local investors. Hence the ability of your fund to calculate the relevant figures, such as the publication at each NAV date of the “Aktiengewinn” (equity gain), “Zwischengewinn” (interim profit) and “Immobiliengewinn” (real estate profit) in Germany for fully transparent funds and deliver the relevant tax information to investors via financial data providers and financial newspapers will be crucial to avoid heavy taxation of investors. • Are you aware of the local post-registration requirements in your target countries of distribution? • Have you checked that your fund administrator has an adequate infrastructure and cross-border experience to satisfy local needs (e.g.German and Austrian tax reporting)?

and languages, manual processes, lack of standardisation and difficulties for investors to access reliable and updated information. From a transfer agency prospective, experience of non domestic inves- tors will also be required, as well as the ability to be connected to the major fund distribution platforms such as NSCC in America, AllFunds in Spain, etc. Besides, you will also have to deal with the increasing complexity of your distribution networks, which will make the identification of your distribu- tors, the monitoring of their activity per country and the trailer fee mana- gement much more difficult than in a pure domestic environment. The cross-border registration and distribution of your funds will inevitably require a wide expertise and a more sophisti- cated approach. The assistance of a versatile service provi- der (transfer agent, fund administration, distribution support) sufficiently experienced in the cross-border environment, with specialist capabilities and having a thorough knowle- dge of the specificities of the main countries of distribution of UCITS will be a key factor of success to help you seize the new business development opportunities you have identified beyond your domestic borders. A local presence in Asia of your service provider could also be a real advantage as it would enable you to put a local call centre at disposal of your Asian investors.

Product (re-)structuring and servicing structure strategy

PRODUCT (RE-)STRUCTURING Marketing aspects will be of paramount importance when considering your target product structure. Thus, replacing your existing domestic funds - which fully satisfy your

OPERATIONAL ASPECTS You should not overlook that in a cross-border environment, operational complexity will be exacerbated, due in particular to various time zones

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