17/05/2006 (Agence Europe) - The French Association française des professionnels des titres (AFTI), whose members include professionals from the financial after-market, particularly those representing the interests of French trustees, has welcomed the report by German Liberal Wolf Klinz on asset management, in which he takes position in favour of changes to European legislation concerning the simplified prospectus and the notification procedure for investment products (see EUROPE 9183). AFTI has issued a press release in which it states that the Klinz report is a "decisive step" towards the achievement of its own objectives. In its response to the Commission's Green Paper, it has defined two priorities: "the harmonisation of the role and the missions of the trustee in order to avoid competition distortions and to protect investors", and "the harmonisation of the means of circulation and distribution of the Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) in order to bring down costs and to rationalise the way funds are dealt with".