New European legal framework, offshore passports in issue, Benoit de
\nla Chapelle-Bizot, Financial Counselor, Head of the French
\nGovernment\u2019s Economic and Finance Department, and France\u2019s
\nPermanent Representative to the European Union, presents an update on recent regulatory developments relating to investment funds<\/p>\n
\nTo provide a global overview of the progress achieved by different initiatives across Europe and to debate on the steps ahead, SGSS recently held a seminar on European financial services infrastructure. The challenge of presenting an update on recent regulatory
\ndevelopments was taken up by Benoit de la Chapelle-Bizot<\/p>\n
Framework complete, but\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n He confirmed to the audience that the new European legal framework 2015: offshore passports in issue<\/strong><\/p>\n Subject to these conditions being met, and subject to assessment by A consensus complicating the picture is the lack of empowerment of The evolution of asset managers and their industry was a focus of Returning to the theme of the AIFMD, Alain Pithon, Deputy Managing Against this backdrop, optimism is higher in Luxembourg about its New European legal framework, offshore passports in issue, Benoit de la Chapelle-Bizot, Financial Counselor, Head of the French Government\u2019s Economic and Finance Department, and France\u2019s Permanent Representative to the European Union, presents an update on recent regulatory developments relating to investment funds<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":17304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1508],"tags":[1655,1841,1986,1437,1837,1669,1984,1917],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17306"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nfor Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) is complete. But he added that
\n25 of the 27 current EU member states are against the granting of a
\npassport to authorise offshore fund managers to trade their funds
\nwithin the EU, unless several conditions are met. One, there must be
\nan appropriate co-operation agreement between the authorities of
\nany individual member state and the relevant offshore location. Two,
\nappropriate anti-money-laundering measures must be in place. Three,
\nthe fund manager\u2019s country of location must comply with OECD tax
\nstandards.<\/p>\n
\nESMA, passports will begin being granted to offshore funds in 2015.
\nMeanwhile, he added that the AIFMD is presenting a separate
\nchallenge: “that of drafting 100 measures of execution”. Further
\nnegotiations are needed with member states, ESMA and the industry
\nitself, he said. “There are a lot of loopholes and a number of
\ndifficulties. Some compromise and ambiguity lies ahead.”<\/p>\n
\nEuropean authorities. “For EMIR we\u2019ll have exactly the same
\ndifficulties,” he said. “And what will be the emergency powers of
\nESMA? Moreover, it is really difficult to negotiate a European regime
\nwithout knowing all the possible consequences of the Dodd-Frank
\nact. The AIFMD was mapped out without a full awareness of the
\nimpact of Dodd-Frank. There will be a strong political debate around
\nthese issues. We need to have a decision and we hope the industry
\nwill help to defend European interests.”<\/p>\n
\nattention in the wide-ranging round table discussion that followed
\nBenoit de la Chapelle-Bizot\u2019s address. Nicolas Gonzalez, Head of
\nProduct Development at SGSS, suggested that the extent of any
\nevolution would depend upon how asset managers leverage the new
\nopportunities that will open up for them under UCITS IV, especially in
\nrelation to distribution. “Master-feeder structures are the new
\ndistribution tool and their adoption should accelerate existing trends,”
\nhe observed. He added that a good deal of work needs to be done
\nto provide support in the middle office and in fund administration.
\n“There will be a need to invest in these functions and when establishing relationships with third-party providers we will need to be
\ncertain that those providers can accompany us on the new
\ndistribution journey.”<\/p>\n
\nDirector of the French Asset Management Association, added that it
\nis too early to say how fund managers will react to the eventual new
\nregime. Several questions face fund managers, he said. “This is a
\nquestion about strategy rather than about organisation. We need to
\nestablish what we want to do. What tools are available to asset
\nmanagers? How do we address the new competition for offshore
\nfunds? After many years of unending discussion competition is beginning aggressively.”<\/p>\n
\nprospects in the new landscape than 12-18 months ago, asserted Pascal Berichel, Head of Fund Distribution Services at SGSS. \u201cA year ago
\npeople were expecting a huge UCITS IV earthquake, but we don\u2019t now expect widespread mergers between funds, and Luxembourg will probably increase its 30% market share.\u201d The governance of infrastructure remains a key question, he added. If the planned new Luxembourg CSD initiative is successful in replacing transfer agencies,
\nthere is a risk that as a monopoly it could charge<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"