Ireland: Master Fund Reporting – AIFMD (NPPR) Annex IV

AIFMD Master Fund Reporting Rules

As reported in previous  updates, ESMA has issued an opinion advising EU authorities to collect certain additional information in AIFMD Annex IV reports to assist them monitor systemic risk (the "ESMA Opinion").

AIFMs managing non-EEA master AIFs were covered as part of this advice. ESMA recommended that they should provide additional information on their master AIFs even where they are not marketed in the EEA, provided that the Master AIFs have a feeder AIF which is marketing in the EEA or domiciled in the EEA¹.

The scope of the ESMA Opinion is very wide. For example, a US manager with a Cayman master AIF and an Irish feeder AIF, or a Cayman feeder AIF marketed in the EEA, would be caught.

The ESMA Opinion has been followed in a number of EEA member states such as Belgium, Ireland and Luxembourg. The United Kingdom has also amended its rules to follow these jurisdictions.

United Kingdom

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (the "FCA") has published amended Annex IV reporting rules, which are relevant for non-EEA AIFMs marketing in the UK under the National Private Placement Regime (the "NPPR") and will come into effect on 29 June 2017.

The amended rules, which will introduce a master AIF reporting requirement for non-EEA AIFMs with a quarterly reporting obligation, are designed to bring the position in the UK into line with a recommendation made in the ESMA Opinion as noted above.

By way of background, non-EEA AIFMs which market a feeder AIF in the UK under Article 42 of AIFMD are not currently obliged to file Annex IV reports for the corresponding master AIF, if the master AIF is not itself marketed in the UK. This position is inconsistent with the ESMA Opinion.

The amended FCA rules mean that from 29 June 2017, a non-EEA AIFM with a quarterly reporting obligation, which markets a feeder AIF in the UK, will be required to file a separate Annex IV report in respect of the corresponding master AIF (which is not marketed in the UK) provided the master AIF is also managed by the non-EEA AIFM.

This rule change does not apply to non-EEA AIFMs with half-yearly or annual reporting obligations.

Footnotes

1 The Master and Feeder AIFs must have the same AIFM.

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