Article 32
1.The assets of an investment company shall be entrusted to a depositary for safe-keeping.
2.A depositary’s liability as referred to in Article 34 shall not be affected by the fact that it has entrusted to a third party all or some of the assets in its safe-keeping.
3.A depositary shall ensure the following:
(a)that the sale, issue, repurchase, redemption and cancellation of units effected by or on behalf of an investment company are carried out in accordance with the law and with the investment company’s instruments of incorporation;
(b)that in transactions involving an investment company’s assets any consideration is remitted to it within the usual time limits; and
(c)that an investment company’s income is applied in accordance with the law and its instruments of incorporation.
4.An investment company’s home Member State may decide that investment companies established on its territory which market their units exclusively through one or more stock exchanges on which their units are admitted to official listing are not required to have depositaries within the meaning of this Directive.
Articles 76, 84 and 85 shall not apply to such investment companies. However, the rules for the valuation of such investment companies’ assets shall be stated in the applicable national law or in their instruments of incorporation.
5.An investment company’s home Member State may decide that investment companies established on its territory which market at least 80 % of their units through one or more stock exchanges designated in their instruments of incorporation are not required to have depositaries within the meaning of this Directive provided that their units are admitted to official listing on the stock exchanges of those Member States within the territories of which the units are marketed, and that any transactions which such an investment company may effect outwith stock exchanges are effected at stock exchange prices only.
The instruments of incorporation of an investment company shall specify the stock exchange in the country of marketing the prices on which shall determine the prices at which that investment company will effect any transactions outwith stock exchanges in that country.
A Member State shall avail itself of the derogation provided for in the first subparagraph only if it considers that unit-holders have protection equivalent to that of unit-holders in UCITS which have depositaries within the meaning of this Directive.
Investment companies referred to in this paragraph and in paragraph 4, shall, in particular:
(a)in the absence of national law to this effect, state in their instruments of incorporation the methods of calculation of the net asset values of their units;
(b)intervene on the market to prevent the stock exchange values of their units from deviating by more than 5 % from their net asset values;
(c)establish the net asset values of their units, communicate them to the competent authorities at least twice a week and publish them twice a month.
At least twice a month, an independent auditor shall ensure that the calculation of the value of units is effected in accordance with the law and the instruments of incorporation of the investment company.
On such occasions, the auditor shall ensure that the investment company’s assets are invested in accordance with the rules laid down by law and the instruments of incorporation of the investment company.
6.Member States shall inform the Commission of the identities of the investment companies benefiting from the derogations provided for in paragraphs 4 and 5.