The Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC) has released a new set of rules which form an opt-in regulatory regime of measures equivalent to the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD).
The AIFMD Rules, 2013 have been published on the GFSC’s website and take effect from 2 January 2014.
Fiona Le Poidevin, chief executive of Guernsey Finance, said: “The introduction of the opt-in regime means that we have another piece of the jigsaw in place to ensure that Guernsey funds can continue to be distributed to both EU and non-EU countries in the future.”
Guernsey is not in the European Union (EU) and therefore considered a ‘third country’ for the purposes of AIFMD.
In response to AIFMD and to cater for its global client base, the island has adopted a ‘dual regime’ where there are two parallel regulatory regimes for investment funds: the existing regime remains in place for managers and investors not requiring an AIFMD fund, including those using EU national private placement regimes and those marketing to non-EU investors; and an opt-in regime which is fully compliant with AIFMD.
Le Poidevin added: “Third countries are not required to implement an AIFMD equivalent regime until the third country passport becomes available in 2015, but we felt that it was important to provide Guernsey managers and depositaries with certainty as soon as possible."
