In our beinformed dated October 4, 2023, we presented the intended changes to the previous interest rate cap regulations and the introduction of the so-called interest rate cap through the Act to Strengthen Growth Opportunities, Investment and Innovation as well as Tax Simplification and Fairness (Growth Opportunities Act). The Growth Opportunities Act was ultimately not passed, but some of the regulations on the interest rate cap have made it into the Act to Promote Orderly Secondary Credit Markets and to Implement Directive (EU) 2021/2167 on Credit Service Providers and Credit Purchasers and to Amend Other Provisions of Financial Market Law (Secondary Credit Market Promotion Act), which has now been passed. The anti-fragmentation regulation (amendment to the regulation of exemption limits) and the interest rate cap still provided for in the Growth Opportunities Act were not included in the Secondary Credit Market Promotion Act.

In October, the EU Parliament, the Council and the Commission concluded the trilogue negotiations on the AIFMD review. The negotiated text of the draft directive amending the AIFMD and the UCITS Directive is expected to be adopted by the EU Parliament and the Council in the first quarter of 2024. We present the new regulations for loan-originating AIFs ("debt funds").

In August, the Federal Cabinet passed the government draft of the Act on the Financing of Future-Proof Investments (Financing for the Future Act). Among other things, the Act was intended to amend the German Investment Code in order to create certainty, at least under supervisory law, for the handling of investments in connection with renewable energies. However, these amendments did not survive the subsequent legislative process and were deleted from the Financing for the Future Act without replacement.