One of the most complicated portions of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD), Annex IV reporting, was given additional guidance by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
On Tuesday, the FCA 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. The documents also detail what type of correspondence GPs will receive from the FCA in return.
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.
The guidance will no doubt be welcomed by GPs who say they are unprepared for the AIFMD’s reporting requirements. 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 avalanche of regulatory change is causing the slow response – that and regulatory fatigue,” said Bobby Johal, a Cordium managing consultant.