---
title: "UCITS"
description: "UCITS is the EU regulatory framework for retail investment funds; a UCITS fund meets rules on diversification, liquidity and disclosure and can be sold across the EU under a passport."
canonical: https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/ucits
published: 2026-09-04
updated: 2026-09-04
publisher: FundFacts API
---

# UCITS (Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities, UCITS fund, UCITS ETF)

> UCITS is the EU regulatory framework for retail investment funds; a UCITS fund meets rules on diversification, liquidity and disclosure and can be sold across the EU under a passport.

**UCITS** (Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities) is the European Union's harmonised framework for investment funds that can be sold to retail investors. Introduced in 1985 and revised several times since, the directive sets rules on eligible assets, diversification (including the well-known "5/10/40" limits on single-issuer exposure), liquidity, borrowing, use of derivatives, depositary oversight and investor disclosure through a key information document.

A fund authorised as a UCITS in one member state can be passported for sale across the EU. Ireland and Luxembourg have become the dominant domiciles, which is why so many fund [ISINs](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/isin) begin with `IE` or `LU`. The label is also widely recognised outside Europe, in parts of Asia and Latin America, as a mark of a regulated, diversified retail product.

## Why it matters

For developers the UCITS label is a useful predictor of data availability. Every UCITS fund must publish a [prospectus](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/prospectus), a key information document ([KIID](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/kiid) or PRIIPs [KID](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/kid)), annual and semi-annual reports, and most publish a monthly [factsheet](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/factsheet). That disclosure regime is what makes it possible to build a structured factsheet from public documents. UCITS ETFs make up the bulk of ETFs listed on European exchanges.

## In the API

The legal wrapper appears in the structure and security type fields.

```json
{
  "securityType": "ETF",
  "structure": "UCITS ETF, Irish ICAV",
  "keyFacts": {
    "manager": "Example Asset Management (Ireland) Ltd"
  }
}
```

Example values. See [fund domicile](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/fund-domicile) for what the country of registration changes.

## Common pitfalls

- UCITS is a wrapper, not a strategy. A UCITS fund can be an index tracker, an active equity fund, a bond fund or a leveraged product within the rules.
- UK funds authorised before 2021 are now "UK UCITS" under onshored rules and may publish a UCITS KIID rather than a PRIIPs KID.

## In the FundFacts API payload

- `securityType`
- `structure`
- `keyFacts.manager`

## About FundFacts API

FundFacts turns any fund or ETF ISIN into one dated factsheet (fees and KID costs, the 1–7 risk indicator, holdings, sector and country exposure, returns) read from the fund house's own documents: as a client-ready PDF under your firm's name for advisers and wealth managers, as JSON through its API for developers, or inside ChatGPT and Claude through its MCP server.

FundFacts works inside ChatGPT and Claude as a connector (a remote MCP server): ask about any fund or ETF by ISIN, ticker or name and the assistant answers from FundFacts' dated figures, fees, risk, holdings, exposure and returns, with fund cards, side-by-side comparisons, holdings overlap and portfolio look-through.

- Free API key, no card: https://fundfactsapi.com/signup
- Documentation: https://fundfactsapi.com/docs (OpenAPI: https://fundfactsapi.com/openapi.json)
- MCP server: https://fundfactsapi.com/api/mcp (set-up for every client: https://fundfactsapi.com/mcp-server)
- Pricing: https://fundfactsapi.com/pricing
- Site index for AI assistants: https://fundfactsapi.com/llms.txt
- Informational data, not investment advice.