On 15 May 2013, the regulator of the funds industry in Ireland,
the Central Bank of Ireland (the "Central Bank"),
announced that it is now accepting applications under the
Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (the
"AIFMD").
The Central Bank also published the relevant Application Forms, as
well as its AIF Rulebook, making it the first regulator in Europe
to provide such clarity on its approach to applications under
AIFMD. The AIF Rulebook details the requirements relating to
alternative investment funds ("AIFs"), alternative
investment fund managers ("AIFMs"), AIF management
companies, fund administrators and depositaries. The Central Bank
also issued a Q&A document clarifying the structures and
processes that will allow investment managers to comply with the
AIFMD. All of this AIFMD related documentation is currently
available on the Central Bank's website as well as draft
application forms for new AIFMD compliant AIFs.
Ireland enjoys a position as a leading jurisdiction for the
domiciliation and servicing of hedge funds (catering for over 40%
of alternative funds globally). Accordingly, the Irish funds
industry took a proactive approach in actively engaging with fund
managers around the world for the purpose of ensuring that Ireland
was AIFMD ready at an early stage and the Central Bank's AIFMD
documentation reflects this preparatory work.
Ireland's Qualifying Investor Fund ("QIF") is
already deemed to be the most AIFMD ready product currently
available and a total of 1,664 were established as of December
2012. As a result, and in anticipation of the introduction of the
AIFMD, total assets held in QIFs have doubled since 2009, when the
first draft of the AIFMD was published.
The announcement by the Central Bank that it is now in a position
to accept applications for AIFs and AIFMs under the AIFMD should
further cement Ireland's position as a leading jurisdiction for
the domiciliation of hedge funds and it will enable AIFMs which
wish to avail of the passport under the AIFMD to be able to do so
without delay from 22 July 2013.
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