Statement from the 9th Meeting of the Bank Board of Národná banka Slovenska

The 9th Meeting of the Bank Board of Národná banka Slovenska was held today (28 February 2012) and was chaired by Jozef Makúch, the NBS Governor.

The Bank Board discussed the Monthly Bulletin of NBS for February 2012, which will be published on the NBS website.

The Bank Board approved the Decree of Národná banka Slovenska specifying details of the content of the fund rules of common funds and the fund rules of umbrella funds.

Given the character of Slovak common funds, the fund rules of a common fund represent a basic contractual document. By acquiring units in a common fund, the unit holder is considered by law to have accepted the provisions of the respective fund rules. The rights and obligations of management companies and unit holders are currently laid down in statutory law and the fund rules of common funds, and, where relevant, in the general business conditions of management companies. At present, the fund rules of common funds are documents with low added value for both unit holders and management companies, as they largely just reproduce statutory provisions. Although management companies’ general business conditions are the only document in which certain relationships between the companies and unit holders can be defined, they should never replace fund rules as the basic contractual document required by law. The purpose of this Decree is to ensure that fund rules are treated as the basic contractual document between management companies and unit holders. Consequently, details concerning their contents need to be specified, in accordance with the principle that fund rules should lay down the rules that management companies are expected to follow when managing common funds. This should be done in such a way as to provide protection to unit holders and to ensure that management companies have sufficient flexibility to manage common funds in the best interests of unit holders.

The Decree will enter into force on 15 March 2012.

Petra Pauerová
hovorkyňa NBS

National Bank of Slovakia
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