Clarification regarding the legal form for special funds

• Question ID: 2018/0025
• Date of publication: 24/01/2018
• Subject matter: Special categories of counterparties, Counterparty reference data
• AnaCredit Manual: Part II
• Data attribute: Legal form

Question

The Manual states that special funds are treated in a similar manner to foreign branches. For example, the managing company of a special fund is reported as if it were the head office undertaking of the fund itself. However, there is some ambiguity concerning the reporting of the data attribute “legal form” in relation to special funds.

On the one hand, Table 131 (page 244) in Part II of the Manual states that no legal form is generally reported in the reference data for foreign branches or special funds (as that information is reported in the counterparty reference data for the head office undertaking, since that head office represents the entire legal entity). On the other hand, however, Section 12.4.13 states that “although special funds are treated similarly to foreign branches for AnaCredit reporting purposes, a value for the attribute ‘legal form’ is also reported in the counterparty reference data record of a counterparty which is a special fund.” Could you please confirm how the legal form should be reported for special funds?

Answer

Unless another legal form in the relevant country list is deemed more appropriate in the specific instance in question, the value “special fund” should be reported in the counterparty reference data for a special fund.

Moreover, the provisions of the Manual should be regarded as valid, since Table 131 focuses on the reporting requirements for legal entities (as represented by the head office) compared with foreign branches in the strict sense, while the treatment of special funds is analogous but not identical to the treatment of foreign branches.

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See also Treatment of investment funds made up of different internal sub-funds