Eltifs

ING plans to begin offering one or more Eltif funds for private banking clients in the Netherlands and Belgium before the end of 2025.

Institutional investors remain wary of semi-liquid private funds, a sentiment that was on full display at this year’s Luxembourg Meeting for Private Markets Investments, a German-language private markets conference known as Lumpi.

The revamped Eltif 2.0 framework, effective since January, is breathing new life into the sector, with Luxembourg playing a central role in this expansion of the market for European Long-Term Investment Funds.

Moonfare is offering a golden ticket for the masses with its new app, making private equity investing as simple as ordering a pizza.

Luxembourg’s financial regulator CSSF plans to make public an online register of European long-term investment funds (Eltifs) later in in July. The register will be updated every month with new registrations.

The ambition of the financial sector to further democratise private markets is not yet convincingly reflected in practice.

Panel discussions at Alfi’s Global Distribution Conference on Wednesday exposed differing viewpoints on the definition of a retail investor, casting a shadow over prospects for success for the next generation of European Long-Term Investment Funds, or Eltifs.

Through various legislative acts over the past 10-15 years, the EU’s push to democratise private markets has transformed how private equity does business, with a heavy helping of technology and fund management tools allowing for what could be a massive influx of smaller-denominated investors. Market participants are feeling their way forward into the new paradigm, some being quite certain that change has now come in the impending form of the new European Long-term Investment Fund.

Europe’s top financial supervisor on Tuesday said it has opened up a consultation on the draft technical standards for European Long Term Investment Funds, or Eltifs, to collect input from the industry. Interested stakeholders have until 24 August to provide input.

The standards, known formally as the ‘RTS’, shed more light on the redemption policies and matching mechanism for Eltifs. The consultation also asks the industry to comment on the proposed disclosure requirements for costs of Eltifs. 

The launch of the amended Eltif regulation – version 2.0 – fits a narrative in some quarters that the version of Eltif already on the books is some kind of failure. Data nevertheless shows that investment in even the “limited” version of Eltif in place since 2015 is still growing quickly and various projections specify even faster growth. In order for the vehicle to be sold to masses of clients under Eltif 2.0, experts said that consequential adaptations will have to be made to the way such funds are sold and distributed.