Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities
A UCITS is a mutual fund based in the EU that can be sold to any investor within the European Union under a harmonised regulatory regime. Designed to enhance the single market while maintaining high levels of investor protection, UCITS funds have also been successful in Asia and Latin America primarily because they provide regulatory and investor protection assurance to investors governed by the EU. Thanks to the single European regulatory framework in place for UCITS, this investment vehicle is also popular amongst fund managers, because they are not required to create a new investment vehicle for each country in which the product is marketed.
UCITS schemes are retail in nature and invest in transferable securities such as shares in companies and other securities equivalent to shares in companies, bonds and other forms of debt securities, or any other negotiable securities which carry the right to acquire any such transferable securities by subscription or exchange.