Glossary — fund regulation, term by term
Every term below also appears as a hover gloss across the site (dotted underline). Terms that carry enough weight get their own page.
Term pages
- AIFM — Alternative investment fund manager — the entity responsible for a fund's portfolio and risk management under AIFMD.
- AIFMD — The EU Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (2011/61/EU) — the rulebook for managers of non-UCITS funds.
- AIFMD II — Directive (EU) 2024/927 — the 2024 amendment of AIFMD: loan origination, liquidity management tools, delegation, reporting.
- Annex IV — AIFMD's supervisory reporting annex — the periodic data return every AIFM files with each national regulator.
- depositary — The independent safekeeping-and-oversight entity every EU AIF and UCITS must appoint.
- ELTIF — European long-term investment fund — the EU wrapper with a retail marketing passport for private assets.
- ILP — Investment limited partnership — Ireland's fund partnership vehicle, overhauled in 2021 for private funds.
- ITS — Implementing technical standards — the Level 2 rules setting formats and procedures (forms, templates, processes).
- JPF — Jersey Private Fund — Jersey's lighter-touch private fund regime; 48-hour JFSC authorisation, investor cap removed August 2025.
- Level 2 — The technical-standards layer under an EU directive — RTS/ITS and delegated acts that carry the operational detail.
- NPPR — National private placement regime — marketing an AIF into an EU country one regulator at a time, without the passport.
- Part II UCI — A fund under Part II of Luxembourg's 2010 Law — the retail-capable AIF wrapper.
- PIF — Private investment fund — Guernsey's registered fund regime, rewritten May 2025 into the QPIF and Family PIF routes.
- QIAIF — Qualifying investor AIF — Ireland's flagship professional-investor fund; 24-hour authorisation once the AIFM is approved.
- RAIF — Reserved alternative investment fund — Luxembourg's AIF with no product-level CSSF approval; supervision rides on its authorised AIFM.
- RTS — Regulatory technical standards — binding detail rules drafted by ESMA and adopted by the European Commission (Level 2).
- SICAR — Société d'investissement en capital à risque — Luxembourg's risk-capital (private equity / venture) vehicle.
- SIF — Specialised investment fund — Luxembourg's 2007-law vehicle for well-informed investors, now framed by CSSF Circular 25/901.
- sub-threshold AIFM — An AIFM below €100m (leveraged) or €500m (unleveraged, 5-year lock-up) AuM — registration, not full authorisation.
- UCITS — Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities — the EU's retail fund regime.
Quick glosses
- AuM — Assets under management.
- CBI — The Central Bank of Ireland — regulator of Irish funds and fund managers.
- CoBO — Control of Borrowing (Jersey) Order — the consent layer under Jersey fund law.
- CSSF — Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier — Luxembourg's financial regulator.
- eDesk — The CSSF's online filing portal.
- ESMA — The European Securities and Markets Authority — the EU-level markets supervisor that drafts the technical standards.
- FCA — The UK Financial Conduct Authority.
- GFSC — The Guernsey Financial Services Commission.
- grandfathering — Transitional relief — existing funds keep running under the old rules for a defined period.
- JFSC — The Jersey Financial Services Commission.
- L-QIAIF — Loan-originating QIAIF — Ireland's pre-AIFMD II credit-fund regime, retired when the revised AIF Rulebook applied in May 2026.
- LMT — Liquidity management tool (swing pricing, gates, side pockets…) — AIFMD II makes open-ended funds select at least two.
- ManCo — Management company — the authorised entity managing UCITS (and often AIFs too).
- MMF — Money market fund — regulated in the EU by the MMF Regulation, with its own reporting.
- NCA — National competent authority — the member-state regulator (CSSF, Central Bank of Ireland, …).
- passport — The right to market or manage across all EU member states on one home-state authorisation.
- SCSp — Société en commandite spéciale — Luxembourg's special limited partnership, the standard private-fund legal form.
- transposition — A member state writing an EU directive into its own national law — the directive binds governments; the national law binds you.