GLOBAL X FUNDS ETF – URANIUM ETF USD – US37954Y8710 –
For the purposes of the ISA regulations, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are treated as collective investment schemes. As no such schemes are authorised by the FCA in the UK, only non-UK domiciled ETFs can qualify for ISA inclusion. Schemes must either be EEA based UCITS compliant schemes which are recognised by the FCA under section 264 FSMA 2000 or EEA/non-EEA schemes which are recognised under sections 270/272 FSMA 2000.
As expected, this scheme does not appear to have the necessary FCA recognition and will not therefore qualify for ISA inclusion.
Although it is possible (in theory) that a US domiciled ETF could meet the ISA criteria, we have yet to see one, so the usual rule of thumb approach is that a US domiciled ETF will not be ISA qualifying.
All we can do at TISA is see if we can locate the necessary evidence which we do, in the main, by referring to the FCA’s Financial Services Register. We may also make use of any relevant fund prospectuses, KIDDS, Fact Sheets etc but the Financial Services Register remains our key tool.
Some fund providers offer both US and European domiciled ETFs and whereas the US ETFs won’t normally be ISA qualifying, the European ETFs may (and usually do) qualify for ISA inclusion as they meet the ‘recognised UCITS’.