Abstract

The paper analyzes the two types of responsibility involved in the field of investment funds. On one side the financial liability for the obligations subsumed by the fund management company on behalf of the fund, which the law limits to the active elements that make up the fund, foreseeing a specific procedure of liquidation of an insolvent fund. On the other side the responsibility for damages deriving from a negligent management of the fund, which, in the absence of a specific regulation, should be dealt with on the basis of the general principles. Such general principles lead to allocate plaintiff status to each participant in the fund, and not, as is affirmed by jurisprudence, to the management company. On the contrary, the management company takes up the role of sole defendant, with the exclusion of its board members. The board members, in turn, will respond towards the company - not towards the fund - for the damages caused to the company's assets if the company is sentenced to repay damages to the participants: in this case the sentence creates an obligation for the company to respond with its entire assets in favour of the participants.