Polling sessions during Clearstream’s Fund Summit in Brussels revealed that 60 percent of the 150 delegates anticipate that the increase of costs for depositories posed by the new Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) rules will be significant and will outweigh the advantages.
On the alternative fund manager side, 56 percent of delegates said AIFMD will significantly affect their operational, legal and/or governance model set-up.
Forty-seven percent of delegates—representing investment fund distributors, fund managers, asset managers and transfer agents—expressed that, going forward, alternative investment funds will be marketed with an EU passport.
Restrictive private placement regimes at national levels were the key reason for this anticipation. Another 47 percent of market experts expect the use of both distribution models (with and without an EU passport) in parallel until
2018 when private placement rules are abandoned.
Philippe Seyll, a member of the executive board and head of investment funds services at Clearstream, said the discussions at the summit clearly demonstrated that there is still a high level of uncertainty imposed by AIFMD in the industry.
“We are engaging with a broad cross-section of the fund industry including the distributors, transfer agents and depository banks to help the market meet its increased obligations following AIFMD,” he said.
“We are adding value in terms of risk management obligations of our customers that are under increasing focus in the new regulatory regime. Discussing these issues at another successful fund summit confirmed that we are on the right track with our envisaged service offering to depository banks and prime brokers that represent AIFs (alternative investment funds).”
.jpg)