The European Commission has published a pair of proposals to update the Level 2 measures of AIFMD (Delegated Regulation 231/2013) (here) and UCITS (Delegated Regulation 2016/438) (here) on safekeeping duties of depositaries, following up on the July 2017 opinion from ESMA on asset segregation (here). 

Although these mostly appear to be a simple integration of what ESMA proposed and appear to allow more natural use of omnibus accounts (e.g., AIF and UCITS accounts no longer have to be separated from each other or from other client accounts of the custodian), the details should be considered carefully.  We welcome any comments members may have in this regard.  It is also worth noting that in the AIFMD Delegated Regulation proposal, Article 99 would be amended to introduce new obligations for depositaries which delegate the custody of assets to third parties located outside the EU, which appears to parallel the existing third country requirement in Article 17(2) of the UCITS Delegated Regulation as proposed to be amended.  The Commission has opened these for comments until 26 June 2018.

Please contact Jennifer Wood if you would like to contribute to a response to these consultations.