On 21 December 2016, the German insurance supervisory authority published a draft of its circular relating to investments by Solvency I insurers and certain pension schemes (the "Investment Circular"). From our point of view, the key statements remained the same when compared to the current version of the Investment Circular and, therefore, we intended to inform you of the final version of the Investment Circular only upon its publication. However, a lively debate has arisen regarding whether the draft of the new Investment Circular may have substantial impact on investments in private equity and debt funds. We would like to contribute to the aforementioned debate.