Europe: BaFin Changes Its Process for Fund Passporting Into Germany

By: Hilger Von Livonius, Emma O’Dwyer, Aoife Maguire, and Gayle Bowen

On 14 and 15 August 2024, the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) updated the following guidance notices:

Guidance Notice on marketing of EU UCITS in Germany

Guidance Notice (2013) for marketing units or shares of EU AIFs or domestic special AIFs (Spezial-AIF) managed by an EU AIF management company to semi-professional and professional investors in the Federal Republic of Germany pursuant to section 323 of the Investment Code

The main changes to each guidance note concern the procedure for payment of the BaFin’s processing fees for notifications and de-notifications of passporting into Germany in relation to EU UCITS and EU AIFs domiciled in a member state other than Germany.

Previously, a UCITS or an EU AIFM submitting a notification or de-notification to its home state regulator in relation to passporting of a UCITS or AIF into Germany was required to pay the relevant German regulatory fee in advance of submission of the notification or de-notification and include proof of payment as part of the submission.

Going forward, after the relevant notification has been submitted and processed, the BaFin will issue a fee notice for the notification to the contact identified in the notification letter.

The processing fees remain the same.

For UCITS, the BaFin currently charges a notification fee of EUR 322 per single fund/ sub-fund, and a de-notification fee of EUR 637 per single fund/sub-fund.

For EU AIFs, the BaFin currently charges a notification fee of EUR 466 per single fund/ sub-fund and a de-notification fee of EUR 284 per single fund/sub-fund.

For any queries relating to cross-border notifications, please reach out to the firm’s global explorer team.