The European Commission has published answers to 67 questions it has received on the AIFMD. The questions and answers relate to a wide range of areas of the AIFMD as listed below. Rather unhelpfully there doesn’t appear to be a way to read all the Q&A without selecting individual questions! The areas covered are:
Cooperation between Member States’ competent authorities Definition of an AIF Delegation Depositary Issues related to Article 37 AIFMD Issues related to master AIFs and feeder AIFs Issues related to private equity Marketing to retail investors MiFID firms and MiFID activities Own funds Passport issues Remuneration Reporting requirements Responsibility of Member States’ competent authorities Scope and exemptions Transitional provisions Transposition Valuation
Cayman Islands co-operation agreements one step closer
In response to the EU’s Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive, the Government of the Cayman Islands has passed The Monetary Authority (Amendment) Law, 2013. This Law will allow the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority to enter into memoranda of understanding (MoU, or so-called AIFMD ‘co-operation agreement’) with its EU counterparts, using a model MoU developed by the European Securities Markets Authority. To date only Brazil and Switzerland have entered into the co-operation agreements required in order to market non-EU funds to EU professional investors post AIFMD. Many now expect the Cayman Islands to enter into agreements ahead of the 22 July 2013 AIFMD implementation date but questions remain about the readiness of a number of other offshore fund domiciles.
The Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) ‘Level 2’ Delegated Regulation, originally published on 19 December 2012, is now official following a three month scrutiny period by the European Parliament and EU Council, and its publication on 22 March 2013 in the Official Journal of the European Union. The AIFMD will now become law across all 27 EU member states on 22 July 2013.
The FSA has published on its website a copy of an e-mail sent to firms that may be considering whether to provide depositary services under the AIFMD. The email provides no guidance on their position in relation to the so-called depo-lite depositary requirements following responses to their first AIFMD consultation paper (CP 12/32) but the text attached to the release of the second AIFMD consultation paper today suggests this may be forthcoming at some point.
Over the past week at least two firms have confirmed they intend to provide depositary services to private equity funds, but the debate between depositaries and prime brokers for hedge funds rumbles on….
Click here to visit the FSA website – go to the section headed AIFMD – Depositaries
FSA publishes second AIFMD consultation paper (CP13/9)
Somewhat later than anticipated and another lengthy document. The consultation paper does not cover all the areas expected and a further consultation paper will follow. This paper does however set out guidance on the FSA’s thinking on delegation by AIFMs and their approach to marketing, including passporting rights and the private placement regime. Responses must be submitted to what will then be the FCA by 10 May 2013.
The consultation paper itself can be found on the FSA website by clicking here.