The European Central Bank (ECB) has published an opinion, dated 12 September 2016, on the proposed Regulation amending the European Venture Capital Funds Regulation (EuVECA) and the European Social Entrepreneurship Funds Regulation (EuSEF). In the opinion, the ECB supports the aims of the proposed Regulation, which it sees as a key part of the Capital Markets Union action plan. The ECB’s comments include the following:

• the ECB notes that the proposed Regulation lays down the conditions to be met by managers when registering EuVECA and EuSEF funds. These conditions include providing information on the identity of the persons effectively managing these funds, the funds themselves and the units or shares in the funds. The ECB considers that the information should include the global legal entity identifier (LEI) for identifying the funds and their authorised managers. The international securities identification number (ISIN) should also be included to identify the units of, or shares in, the funds to be marketed. The ECB believes that this will improve the reliability of this information and enable effective implementation of monetary policy; and
• the above requirements to report the global LEI and ISIN should also apply to all financial markets and not just specific market segments. This would ensure availability of a minimum set of standardised information covering the main features of all institutions, products and transactions on the financial markets.

Where the ECB recommends amendments to the proposed Regulation, it has set out specific drafting proposals in an attached technical working document.

View ECB opinion on proposed Regulation amending EuVECA Regulation and EuSEF Regulation, 13 September 2016