A survey of funds industry participants has found that more than 50% of them believe investors would still not be engaged in the Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFMD) directive by December 2015.
The survey covered start up and established investment managers, consultants, prospective clients and existing clients, who attended a recent Northern Trust seminar on AIFMD.
Two thirds (66%) of the attendees still saw the directive primarily as a compliance exercise, an increase on the 64% who felt the same a year ago. Despite the benefit of the European passporting regime that the AIFMD is meant to bring, making distribution easier for fund managers, less than 15% of attendees believe the directive is strategically important opportunity for their business, and 62% of attendees reporting that AIFMD will have no implication on their future product strategy.
However, despite the low number of industry participants who see as AIFMD as an opportunity, Ian Headon of Northern Trust’s depository business notes an increasing number of hedge fund managers who are looking to launch AIFMD-funds as a way of future proofing their business. “They are not necessarily re-domiciling but they are looking at setting up new structures to accommodate the institutional investors who are taking an approach of having the AIFMD fund to show they are compliant because of the regulations they are living out all of the time.”
Headon adds the depository business has seen a significant uptake of U.S. hedge fund managers with a European client base setting up these structures to future proof their business against regulatory changes.
He predicts a shake up of fund managers, particularly the start up and emerging market managers, who face increasing start up costs as a result of these changes.
Investors Will Still Not Be Engaged in AIFMD by 2015, Survey Finds
A survey of funds industry participants has found that more than 50% of them believe investors would still not be engaged in the Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFMD) directive by December 2015.
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