TITLE: French Banking Law // VOLCKER Rule Analysis
Guidelines for the reading of the selected funds.
Weekly analysis of the 09 April 2022: OFI FUND – RS ACT4 POSITIVE ECONOMY OAEP CAPITALISATION
The analysis will be made thanks to EURONEXT FUNDS360. This Fund has been selected for its orientation in the sustainable economy and its performance.
1) Overall performance on the 05/04/2022:
Historical performance of the fund: +33,82% over the last year.
The purpose of this analysis is to determine if this fund shall be or not considered as a leveraged UCI (Undertakings for Collective Investments).
If a fund is considered as a leveraged UCI, an eligible guarantee must be established by the banking entity for any transaction.
2) Fund overview:
Type of UCI: UCITS
“OFI FUND, an open-ended investment company with variable capital (société d’investissement à capital variable), is governed by Part I of the Luxembourg law of 17 December 2010 relating to undertakings for collective investment as amended and qualifies as a UCITS within the meaning of Article 1 (2) of the Directive.”
Legal form: Luxemburg OEIC
Type of investment policy:
« The objective of this Sub-Fund is to outperform its reference benchmark the Stoxx Europe 600 Net Return by investing in quoted equity securities of companies, domiciled and listed in Regulated Markets or Other Regulated Markets within the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom. In order to achieve its investment objective, this Sub-Fund will base its investments on fundamental research in the selection of individual securities for long positions.
To that end the Sub-Fund will select companies with good performance outlook and which contribute to the “Positive Economy” define by four thematic, energy transition, natural resources preservation, heath/safety/wellness and social inclusion. »
This fund is an Equity Fund, focused in the « Positive economy ».
APPLICABLE LAW: Luxemburg
ISIN : LU1983381689
Profile of investors:
This fund is open to both retail and institutional investors (SEE ELIGIBLE INVESTORS).
Level of investment in other UCIs:
“The Directors of the Company have decided that, in respect of all Sub-Funds, not more than 10% of the assets of any Sub-Fund may in the
aggregate be invested in UCITS or UCIs.”
This fund shall not invest more than 40% in any leveraged UCI (10%).
GLOBAL EXPOSURE:
« This Sub-Fund uses the commitment approach to monitor and measure the global exposure.”
The total fund exposure is regulated by the UCITS Regulation. Therefore, the global exposure of the SICAV shall not exceed 300% of the net asset value.
Asset Manager : OFI LUX
3) SUMMARY
To be considered as a leveraged UCI, a fund shall:
- Have a global exposure of more than 3 times the NAV
- Invest in more than 40% in others leveraged UCI
Regarding the investment policy and the characteristics described, this fund shall not be considered as a leveraged UCI.
Therefore, global exposure shall not be above 300% of the total assets.
Therefore, any financial institution that would make an operation with this fund shall not need to set an eligible guarantee.
4) Volcker Rule Analysis
4.1) Introduction to the Volcker Rule
“Section 13 of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, as amended (the “Volcker Rule”), introduced in the Dodd-Frank Act, 3 generally “prohibits any banking entity from engaging in proprietary trading or from acquiring or retaining an ownership interest in, sponsoring or having certain relationships with a hedge fund or private equity fund, subject to certain exemptions”
The Volcker rule targets a covered fund, which includes an issuer that would be an investment company, but for the exclusions contained in Section 3(c)(1) or Section 3(c)(7) of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”).
Source :
http://www.iflr.com/pdfs/A-users-guide-to-the-Volcker-Rule.pdf
Description of section 3©(1) and 3©(7) of the US investment company act of 1940 :
https://www.strictlybusinesslawblog.com/2017/09/21/3c1-funds-vs-3c7-funds/
After the description of the Volcker Rule, let’s determine if the fund OFI FUND – RS ACT4 POSITIVE ECONOMY OAEP CAPITALISATION
shall be considered as a covered fund or not.
4.2) Exclusions of Volcker Rule
To determine if a fund is a covered fund, let’s look about the exclusions of the law:
- Foreign public funds
- Wholly-owned subsidiaries
- Joint ventures
- Acquisition vehicles
- Securitization related vehicles
- Funds regulated under the 1940 Act
- Other excluded entities
In addition, permitted activities and market-making are allowed:
“The prohibition against proprietary trading does not apply to permitted underwriting activities and market making-related activities. (…) To engage in either permitted activity, a banking entity must comply with three overall conditions:
- the banking entity must maintain an internal compliance program required by Subpart D (and discussed below) to ensure that the banking entity complies with the conditions permitting the activity;
- the compensation arrangements of people involved in these activities must not be designed to reward or incentivize prohibited proprietary trading; and
- the banking entity must be licensed or registered to engage in the permitted activity.
In addition, the following specific conditions apply.
- Underwriting: “Underwriting activities are permitted only if the trading desk’s underwriting position is related to a “distribution” of securities for which the banking entity is acting as underwriter.”
- Market-making: “Market making-related activities are permitted only if the relevant trading desk routinely stands ready to purchase and sell one or more types of financial instruments related to its financial exposure and is willing and available to quote, purchase or sell those types of financial instruments for its own account in commercially reasonable amounts and throughout market cycles on a basis appropriate for the liquidity, maturity and depth of the market for the relevant types of financial instruments”
- Permitted risk-mitigating hedging activities: “The prohibition on proprietary trading does not apply to certain risk-mitigating hedging activities.”
The Volcker 2.0 “(…) add four new exclusions to the definition of “covered fund” — credit funds, venture capital funds, family wealth management vehicles and customer facilitation vehicles — thereby exempting them from the scope of the Volcker Rule.”
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=9646f9cd-cb61-46c1-8515-cffaaf2fcb77
4.3) Volcker Rule analysis
Before checking any exclusion or exemption, we must determine is the fund can be sold or not to any U.S. person: “The Company has not been registered under the United States Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, or any similar or analogous regulatory scheme
enacted by any other jurisdiction except as described herein.
In addition, the Shares have not been registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or under any similar or analogous provision of law enacted by any other jurisdiction except as described herein.
The Shares may not be and will not be offered for sale, sold, transferred or delivered in the United States of America, its territories or possessions or to any “US Person” (as defined hereafter), except in a transaction which does not violate the securities laws of the United States of America.”
As mentioned above, the fund is open to both retail and institutional investors.
Based on the extract from the prospectus, we can determine that:
– The fund is a Non-US issuer
– It is sold predominantly outside of the United States
– the subscription is restricted for US investors
– the fund be authorized to offer and sell ownership interests, and such interests be offered and sold, through one or more public offerings (See Type of Eligible investors).
We could conclude that this fund shall not be considered as a Covered Fund as described in the 1940 Investment Company Act.
While other exclusions may apply, OFI FUND – RS ACT4 POSITIVE ECONOMY OAEP CAPITALISATION
shall not be considered as a Covered Fund, relying on the exclusion from the Investment Company Act of 1940: Foreign Public Fund.
Sources :
https://www.ofilux.lu/fiche_uk.php?codIsin=LU1209226296
https://www.journaldunet.fr/patrimoine/guide-des-finances-personnelles/1201825-sicav-definition/
https://epargne.ooreka.fr/astuce/voir/492561/code-isin
https://www.amf-france.org › Epargne-et-prestataires › OPCVM
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