Establish Open-Ended Retail Funds in Italy

The National Bank of Italy has enabled several regulations over the years in order to help the development of the investment fund industry. Apart from that, Italy has also adopted the EU legislation which provides for the establishment of investment funds in all EU countries. Foreign investors who want to open companies in Italy in the investment fund sector have several choices. Among these, open-ended and closed-ended investment funds are the most popular in Italy.

Our company registration agents in Italy can offer detailed information on the legislation related to opening open-ended investment funds.

Types of open-ended funds in Italy

Open-ended retail funds in Italy can take one of the following forms:

• -          undertakings for collective investment schemes (UCITS) which fall under the law with the same name;
• -          alternative investment funds (AIFs), which fall under EU Directive 2011/61/EU.

While open-ended retail funds under the form of UCITS may trade transferable securities, AIFs are subject to simpler establishment and compliance requirements.

Requirements to set up an open-ended retail fund in Italy

Italian open-ended retail funds can be established in order to trade on the local capital markets only, or on the local and other EU capital markets. Investors setting up open-ended retail funds in Italy must also know that they may only own 10% of the non-voting share capital of the fund. Also, investments in deposits are limited to 20% of the fund’s assets. If an open-ended retail fund is established under the form of a UCITS fund an is managed by a custodian, deposit investments are limited at 10%.

The units issued by the fund must be worth at least 50,000 euros per unit, in the case of open-ended retail fund trading in Italy.

Establishing the open-ended retail fund in Italy

The establishment of Italian open-ended retail funds are subject to the approval of the National Bank and may be set up as investment companies with fixed or variable capital. The documents filed for approval with the Central Bank must state the following:

• -          the name and duration of the fund;
• -          the terms and conditions for participating to the fund;
• -          the calculation of the Net Asset Value (NAV) of the fund;
• -          who the manager of the fund is.

Italian open-ended funds must be managed by specialized personnel of companies, according to the AIFM regulations.

For assistance in setting up an open-ended retail fund, please contact our company registration consultants in Italy.