CP12/32: Implementation of the Alternative ... - BVCA admin

November 2012
CP12/32
Implementation of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive
where they are providing services to a vehicle that will be an AIF. We expect to assess these
applications for VoPs on an individual basis.
4.12 The Directive sets out specific standards which a firm must meet to be authorised as an
AIFM. Some of these requirements will be transposed through secondary legislation; the
rest (Article 8(1)(c)) will be transposed in SYSC 4.2.7R and 4.2.8R.
4.13 The FCA does not expect to begin accepting applications for authorisation or a VoP from
prospective AIFMs before 23 July 2013. In the ordinary course, where an applicant
provides all the relevant information, we will determine an application for authorisation or
VoP within the three-month period specified in the Directive. In certain circumstances we
may prolong this period by a further three months, provided we notify the applicant
accordingly, in line with the Directive’s requirements. An application for authorisation will
need to contain at least the following information about the AIFM (we may ask for more):
• the identity of the persons who conduct its business;
• the identity of shareholders who have 10% or more of the capital or voting rights in
the AIFM and the size of their shareholdings;
• its organisational structure and how it intends to comply with the Directive;
• its remuneration policies and practices; and
• its delegation arrangements.
4.14 The application must also contain the following information about each AIF
under management:
• its investment strategies;
• if it is a feeder AIF, the jurisdiction where its master AIF is established;
• the instrument constituting the fund;
• the arrangements made for the appointment of the depositary; and
• the information to be disclosed to investors in accordance with FUND 3.2.2R.
Authorisation of UCITS management companies
4.15 A firm that currently acts as a management company of a UCITS will already hold a Part
IV permission to establish, operate and wind up a CIS or to act as sole director of an
OEIC. The Treasury is proposing to provide in its regulations that all UCITS management
companies will automatically be transferred to the activity of managing a UCITS. Where
the firm manages AIFs as well, it will be subject to the same authorisation or VoP processes
as any other AIFM for that part of its business.
Financial Services Authority 29