How to submit information reports required by the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) with regulators is still a mystery, legal sources gripe.
“Recently I was reaching out to regulators to try and find out for clients how to file the Annex IV report,” Sally Gibson, international counsel at law firm Debevoise & Plimpton, said at the BVCA Summit on Thursday. “Do GPs need a password and login for an online platform. Is the report sent via email? If so, what is the email address?”
Consequently private fund managers say they’ve been unable to finish their AIFMD compliance planning and preparation. The first reporting deadline for most private fund managers is January 15, 2015.
Over half (57 percent) of the 27 EU-based fund managers subject to the directive surveyed by compliance consultants Cordium said they’ve yet to begin their reporting preparations.
“The Annex IV is a tremendous challenge and people should be getting preparations under way as soon as possible,” said Bobby Johal, a Cordium managing consultant.
However, not all regulators should be tarred with the same brush, stress legal sources. The UK’s financial watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), recently emailed AIFMD-authorized GPs and non-EU GPs looking to market in the UK with documents which provide guidance on the process of submitting reports to the FCA.
More specifically the guidance allows GPs to work out: the period which their first report will cover; which sections of the report need to be filled in; determine what information they will need to collate or obtain to complete the reports; what the process for reporting to the FCA is; and what systems they need in place to submit the reports in the required format.