Revision of the „Directive for Admission of Asset Managers“ of the Occupational Pension Supervisory Commission

On February 20, 2014 the Occupational Pension Supervisory Commission („OPSC“) issued the Directive for Admission of Asset Managers („OPSC Directive“). It sets out the admission requirements for those asset managers, which do not rank among the regulated institutions according to art. 48f para. 4 BVV 2 and are not exempt from the admission requirement according to art. 48f para. 6 BVV 2; pls. see our respective report. On March 23, 2017 the OPSC has issued a revised version of the OPSC Directive and partially adapted and concretized the admission requirements. Furthermore, the annexes of the OPSC Directive have been revised. The revision of the OPSC Directive holds mainly specifications and clarifications. In addition, the following additional admission requirements must be taken into account:

–       Documentation of the asset manager’s organization considering the size and complexity of its business and risks (clause 3.1.2 lit. a of the OPSC Directive);

–       Listing of the delegable asset management responsibilities in the asset management agreement (clause 3.1.2 lit. e of the OPSC Directive);

–       Documentation of the measures and responsibilities in cases of conflicts in an internal directive or a comparable document (clause 3.1.2 lit. g of the OPSC Directive);

Confirmation in the asset management agreement that when using financial products of related companies and financial products of companies for which the asset manager is acting as sales manager a written pre-contractual disclosure took place (clause 3.1.3 lit. k of the OPSC Directive).

To read the full article in German, please click here.