Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee underlined that investment fund managers' bonuses must be capped, and their salaries must be linked to their funds' performance. According to the responsible MEP of the report, Sven Giegold, the UCITS bonus cap will help strengthen investor protection and reduce risky speculation.

MEPs at the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee stressed during the vote of a draft law that undertakings for collective investments in transferable securities (UCITS), which gather assets from ordinary retail investors and pool them to buy bonds, shares or other financial products must be subject to stricter rules, to protect investors in them properly. They also highlighted that UCITS control almost €6.3 trillion in funds. The new rules were proposed by the European Commission in July 2012.

The text adopted by the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee states that the variable component of a fund manager's total salary should not exceed the fixed component salary and 50% of the variable remuneration should be paid in the units (assets) of the UCITS concerned. MEPs also added that fund managers' pay should be always aligned with the investors' interests and the performance of the fund in question.

In addition, the text says that depositaries which hold UCITS assets for safekeeping and ensure that their transactions comply with all applicable laws, must act independently and solely in the interest of the UCITS asset holders - they must not trade in UCITS assets on their own account. The new rules would also make UCITS fund depositaries liable to UCITS and their asset holders for any loss of their assets, even if these assets were held in custody by a third party.