Industry bodies criticise ESMA passport delay 03 August 2015London Reporter: Stephanie Palmer
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The European Securities and Markets Association (ESMA) should be making faster progress in extending its pan-European passport to alternative investment fund managers in non-EU jurisdictions, according to the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA).
The Investment Company Institute (ICI) has gone a step further, with CEO Paul Schott Stevens saying ESMA’s decision not to recommend the US for passport extension will “discriminate against US managers”.
The AIMA welcomed ESMA’s recommendation to extend the pan-European marketing passport to managers in Switzerland – subject to change in legislation – and in Jersey and Guernsey, however it advised that the passport should be granted to all main asset management and fund jurisdictions.
While the association welcomes the intention to assess the Cayman Islands, Canada and Australia, and the willingness to refine its assessment of the US, Hong Kong and Singapore, it questioned the open-ended decision on the US.
AIMA CEO Jack Inglis said: “While we would have wished ESMA to adopt a more streamlined and speedier assessment of all important jurisdictions as there is no need for an equivalence assessment in the AIFMD, we welcome the clarity on which jurisdictions are to be assessed in the coming months.”
The ICI, whose members represent about $18.2 trillion in assets under management, in total, criticised the decision.
Schott Stevens said the advice “inappropriately confuses the regulation of mutual funds with the regulation of funds sold to professional investors in the United States.”
He added: “Currently in the US, EU managers can readily sell funds to professional investors on the same terms as US managers, and across the entire US marketplace. Unfortunately, the impact of ESMA’s advice would be to discriminate against US managers by denying them comparable access to the entire EU marketplace.”
“EU policymakers must correct this error and apply the appropriate legal analysis before they take additional action on the potential extension of the AIFMD passport to the United States.”
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