On the 16 August 2023, following positive engagement with the Central Bank of Ireland (the “CBI”), Irish Funds (the Irish funds industry representative body) announced that the CBI had indicated that it intends to develop a standalone European Long Term Investment Fund (ELTIF) chapter to be included in the CBI’s Alternative Investment Fund (‘AIF’) Rulebook. This will result in ELTIFs becoming a standalone regulated product in Ireland and facilitate the authorisation by the CBI of ELTIFs under Regulation (EU) 2015/760 and its upcoming amending regulation, Regulation (EU) 2023/606 (the ‘ELTIF Regulations’).

The proposed ELTIF chapter will set out rules for Irish ELTIFs which will expand upon the requirements of the ELTIF Regulations. Irish Funds anticipate that these amendments will be specifically in relation to the supervisory and operational matters that currently apply to authorised Irish AIFs, such as expected disclosures and regulatory reporting, rather than product specific rules which are currently applicable to ELTIFs under the ELTIF Regulations.

The CBI intends to engage with industry on the amendments to the AIF Rulebook later this year by opening a short period of public consultation. The rationale behind this prompt consultation is to ensure that the revised AIF Rulebook will be in place with the introduction of the updated ELTIF Regulations on the 10 January 2024. Ultimately, the CBI is seeking alignment between the ELTIF Regulations and updated AIF Rulebook.