CFCL General information – Estonia

CFCL eligible fund types

Register market

Under Estonian law, a fund can be established pursuant to the Estonian Investment Fund Act as a contractual fund, public limited company, limited partnership or a defined-benefit occupational pension fund. 

The main classification of Estonian investment funds eligible in CFCL are as followed:

• Contractual fund: Pool of assets established from the money collected through the issue of units or other assets and assets acquired through investment of money and which is jointly owned by unitholders. A fund manager conducts transactions with the assets of a contractual fund in its own name and for the common account of all the unitholders;
• Public limited Fund: Fund founded as a public limited company pursuant to the Investment Funds Act and the provisions of the Commercial Code apply to the foundation, operation, and dissolution thereof;
• Limited Partnership Fund: Fund founded as a limited partnership pursuant to the Invest Funds Act and the provision of the Commercial Code apply to the foundation, operation, and dissolution thereof. A limited partnership fund may manage its own assets or enter into a management contract with a fund manager.

These funds can be further classified:

• UCITS: Funds that comply with the requirements provided for in Directive 2009/65/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council. Shares or Units of UCTIS Funds may be publicly offered in all EEA Member States and shall be redeemed at the request of unitholders or shareholders;
• Alternative Investment Fund (AIF): Any fund which is not a UCITS, pension fund or defined-benefit occupational pension fund. The subcategories of alternative investment funds are:
  • Small Alternative Fund;
  • European Venture Capital Fund;
  • European Social Entrepreneurship Fund;
  • Closed-Ended Fund;
  • European Long-Term Investment Fund.
• Feeder fund: Fund which assets are invested to the extent of at least 85% in the units or shares of a master fund or placed in the master fund in any other manner.
• Master fund: Fund that has at least one feeder fund among its unitholders or shareholders, not a feeder fund itself and does not hold any units or shares of a feeder fund.
• Foreign fund: Fund which has been established or founded pursuant to foreign law.

CSD link

Eligible funds

Investment funds that are eligible in Estonia CSD, (Nasdaq CSD SE) or T2S can be made eligible in CFCL.

Please refer to the Market Link Guide – Estonia for more information.

Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)

Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) are permitted and can be traded within the Estonian market.

Custody chain and depository

Estonia is a T2S Market.

The OneClearstream service level provides clients with a single point of access to all T2S markets with comprehensive instruments coverage. This is complemented by full harmonization of asset services and connectivity channels between CFCL, CBL, and CEU. This service is available to all our clients via a single interface and log-on.

The service description is valid for CFCL clients, unless otherwise highlighted in the documentation.

CFCL utilises the T2S infrastructure platform to access Estonia’ CSD (Nasdaq CSD SE) through the intermediaries of CBL and CEU. Indeed, CFCL uses CBL as a global custodian across all markets.

a. Interoperable link for T2S-related aspects.

Depository

Operational arrangements 

This section describes the operational arrangements of the Estonian market, which is both a domestic and a register market.

b. Settlement in CHF is possible only for non-Swiss securities and not against SIX SIS as counterparty in CEU.

Legal arrangements

The below section is valid on the date of the legal opinions that were issued and might be subject to change.

The information is provided for guidance only and should not be considered in isolation or as constituting a complete or definitive legal advice on any specific matter.

As CBL is our sub-custodian, please refer to the Market Link Guide – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (Nasdaq CSD) for the complete information about Legal arrangements.

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