There have been a number of significant international and Irish legal and regulatory developments since July 2007 in the financial services arena. A number of these developments stem from the continued movement at European Union (EU) level towards the integration of European financial markets as envisaged by the Financial Services Action Plan, while a number of these developments are domestic in nature albeit arising from international market developments (for example, the regulation of non-deposit taking lenders engaged in retail lending in Ireland arising from concerns over defaults in the sub-prime mortgage sector).
As the pace of legal and regulatory developments continues unabated, it remains important to ensure that the interests of the financial services industry and government policy remain aligned in order to ensure the ongoing success of Ireland as an attractive location for funds, financial service providers and asset managers. Ireland is now seeing many Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITSs) take advantage of the new structuring possibilities under UCITS III, particularly for long/short type products, total return swap arrangements and portfolios made up of derivatives on baskets of securities and on financial indices including hedge fund and commodities indices. This has led to an increasing complexity within UCITS products, a greater focus on valuation issues, on collateral issues and more generally as to what does and does not qualify as an eligible asset for UCITS.
