The Ucits III vision of unity breaks apart

It was sold to us as financial products' realisation of the pan-European dream - the Ucits III directive would allow seamless, retail cross-border EU distribution of products given Ucits certification in another member country. What Brussels' visionaries did not take into account was different EU jurisdictions viewing the retail market and Ucits qualification for funds differently. Luxembourg has interpreted 'Ucits-compliant' arguably a little more broadly than other member states, then Germany made funds of hedge funds available to the masses from 1 January 2004, and all countries seem...