AIMA sets out guidelines for AIFMD compliance

The Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), the global hedge fund industry association, has published a new set of practical guides for hedge fund managers wishing to comply with the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD).

The new guides cover three of the most important EU jurisdictions for the industry – the UK, Ireland and Luxembourg – and build on the generic AIFMD implementation guide that AIMA published in January 2013.

The new guides are intended to help managers understand how the AIFMD as implemented in the UK, Ireland and/or Luxembourg will impact their business and set out some of the strategic and operational choices that they face in order to respond to and comply with the AIFMD as transposed into national law in those countries.

The UK guide, AIMA said, is targeted at managers either already present in the country or considering establishing a business there, while the Irish and Luxembourg guides are perhaps most relevant to managers considering setting up funds in those jurisdictions.

The Irish guide was produced jointly by AIMA and the Dublin office of Maples and Calder, the international law firm, while the Luxembourg guide was a production of AIMA and Elvinger, Hoss & Prussen, the Luxembourg law firm.

Jack Inglis, AIMA CEO, said: “We hope that these practical guides for the UK, Ireland and Luxembourg improve managers’ understanding of what they need to do in order to establish a business or fund in those locations.

“Ever since the level II text of the AIFMD was agreed in 2011, AIMA has played a leading role in helping the industry meet the challenge of complying with the AIFMD. AIMA’s generic implementation guide helped the industry better understand the basic requirements of the AIFMD across the EU as a whole, but it is only now, with the July 2014 implementation deadline approaching, that we have a clearer picture of how the AIFMD will be applied in some of the most important EU jurisdictions for our industry.”