The EU Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive – the offshore angle

Since the first draft was published by the European Commission on 29 April 2009, the EU Directive to regulate Alternative Investment Fund Managers (the “AIFMD”), has been one of the most widely discussed, debated and anticipated pieces of regulation in the investment funds industry.

After months of intensive negotiation and lobbying, an agreement on the final version of the AIFMD was reached in a trialogue meeting on 26 October 2010 by representatives of the European Parliament, European Council and European Commission. On 3 November 2010, this text of the AIFMD was approved by the Committee of Permanent Representatives (“COREPER”), which consists of the Member States' ambassadors to the European Union. On 11 November 2010, the European Parliament approved the final text with EU finance ministers to formally approve the text on behalf of the European Council shortly thereafter. The AIFMD is expected to come into force in early 2011 with individual EU Member States required to implement it by early 2013.

Notwithstanding the months and years the AIFMD will take to traverse the labyrinth of EU bureaucracy before it comes fully in to being, the AIFMD is nevertheless a reality. For Bermuda, as one of the leading international financial centres for alternative investment funds (“AIFs”), many of which have EU based managers, the AIFMD is something which the jurisdiction needs to understand and to work alongside in the interests of its industry constituents.

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The EU Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive – the offshore angle