In a move that will be welcomed by asset managers conducting exchange-traded fund (ETF) business in Ireland, or those who are hoping to move into the Irish ETF space, the Central Bank of Ireland (the Central Bank) has moved to allow for the establishment of semi-transparent ETFs by amending its requirements for portfolio transparency. 

In Ireland, ETFs are typically established as undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities (UCITS), and semi-transparent ETFs are actively managed ETFs that disclose their holdings on a periodic (less than daily) basis. 

Previously, the Central Bank only authorised ETFs that published their holdings on a daily basis. This approach was evidenced by the Central Bank’s response to a previous version of its UCITS Q&A 1012 which posed the question, “I am a UCITS and am authorised by the Central Bank as an active ETF. Am I required to provide details of the holdings within my portfolio on a daily basis?”. The Central Bank stated that it would not authorise an ETF, including an active ETF or a UCITS ETF share class of a UCITS, unless arrangements were put in place to ensure that information is provided on a daily basis regarding the identities and quantities of portfolio holdings and that these arrangements must be disclosed in the prospectus of the UCITS. 

This daily disclosure requirement had, in the past, been a blocker for certain asset managers wishing to enter the Irish ETF market due to concerns that having to publish holdings on a daily basis could potentially lead to other asset managers short-selling or even copying their investment strategies. On the back of this feedback, the funds industry in Ireland had petitioned the Central Bank to change their position in the hope that it would bring more active managers (i.e., traditional fund managers) to Europe. 

The revised Q&A, published by the Central Bank on 17 April 2025, while retaining the ability for ETFs to publish holdings on a daily basis, now provides flexibility in that “periodic disclosures” are now permissible once the following conditions are adhered to:

• Appropriate information is disclosed on a daily basis to facilitate an effective arbitrage mechanism; 
• The prospectus discloses the type of information that is provided in point (i);
• This information is made available on a nondiscriminatory basis to authorised participants (APs) and market makers (MMs); 
• There are documented procedures to address circumstances where the arbitrage mechanism of the ETF is impaired; 
• There is a documented procedure for investors to request portfolio information; and 
• The portfolio holdings as at the end of each calendar quarter are disclosed publicly within 30 business days of the end of the quarter.

For asset managers who wish to stick to the status quo and continue to disclose portfolio holdings on a daily basis, they must ensure that (i) the prospectus discloses the type of information that will be provided in relation to the portfolio; and (ii) the portfolio information is made available on a nondiscriminatory basis.  

Luxembourg’s financial regulator, the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), took a similar approach in revising its guidance in late 2024. However, the Central Bank’s updated rules are in fact more flexible than those of the CSSF in that a) they cover both active and passive ETFs and b) only “appropriate information” is required to be shared with APs and MMs of semi-transparent Irish ETFs as opposed to the requirement to disclose full portfolio holdings in Luxembourg. 

These new semi-transparent ETFs will be most attractive for active asset managers who have previously been dissuaded from establishing an ETF in Ireland due to their reluctance to share their proprietary information.