Displaying items for 2015

One of the biggest challenges facing asset managers, be it those regulated under UCITS or the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) surrounds EU cross-border marketing.It is a point repeatedly made by The New City Initiative (NCI). In our paper – “Asset Management in Europe: The Case for Reform” – produced in conjunction with Open Europe, we estimated a UK manager distributing and marketing its fund in all other 27 EU member states plus Switzerland would incur initial set-up costs of over €1.5 million. Total on-going maintenance costs – allowing for the continuation of cross-border marketing – could be near…

The proposed one year delay by the European Commission (EC) to the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II) is a welcome relief at asset managers. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) had reportedly written to the EC recommending a delay amid widespread concerns that financial institutions would be unable to undertake the necessary IT infrastructure reforms to implement MiFID II.The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) had hinted there could be delays amid uncertainty over the final proposals while industry associations and market participants had all called for a postponement. However, recent reports suggest that senior Members of…

UCITS has evolved markedly since its inception in the 1980s, and continues to do so. It remains a truly global brand with particular interest from Latin American and Asia-Pacific allocators. UCITS V, which must be transposed into national law by EU member states by March 18, 2016, is going to bring about a number of changes around remuneration, depositary appointments and harmonisation of sanctions – i.e. fines for administrative breaches. The first two provisions are likely to have the biggest impact on managers.RemunerationThe remuneration provisions contained within UCITS V broadly mirror those imposed on managers under the Alternative Investment Fund…

Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) is the latest tax initiative to impact the financial services industry following the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), its UK variant – “The Son of FATCA” and the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Common Reporting Standard (CRS). Like CRS, BEPS is an OECD-led initiative first unveiled in 2014 and it is designed to clamp down on cross-border double non taxation and treaty shopping by multinational corporations.  While the OECD cannot introduce legislation per say, it does carry political clout and a number of countries will take note of it.  BEPS will affect…

Cyber-crime is an issue that is rapidly gaining traction in financial services – among managers, investors and regulators. A survey of clients conducted by the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) on their attitudes to systemic risk in May 2015 found 46 per-cent of respondents cited cyber-crime as the biggest risk to the world economy, while 80 per-cent identified it as one of their top five risks.  This is more than double the number who identified cyber-crime as the biggest systemic risk in DTCC’s 2014 survey.This should not be surprising. In 2013, the then Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems…