EFAMA points out that the overall timeline for having gained experiences on the AIFMD passport was much shorter than originally anticipated when AIFMD Level 1 was adopted.
Due to the late (and in some cases still incomplete) transposition of AIFMD into Member State law, asset management companies had to delay their respective applications and some have only received them in July of 2014. Under these circumstances, EFAMA is raising the question whether the timing of such an advice might not be considered too early, since it will ultimately lack material granularity which would be needed in properly assessing the progress made. Consequently, if no meaningful experiences from market participants can be collected, we would suggest that ESMA should ask the Commission to delay its assessment for an appropriate time to make sure that such a collection is more feasible in order to provide the requested assessment to the co-legislators.
Processing fees
Procedurally, national standards as to when and in which way a fee shall be paid display considerable differences. In terms of costs, marketing of an AIF into several EU jurisdictions can be an expensive exercise implying ten thousands of Euros only for handling/storing the notification files processed by other EU authorities.
While EFAMA understands that additional costs are to be expected when using the passport, these fees should be of proportionate nature and should not represent a level of national gold-plating that is creating an entry barrier for authorised EU AIFMs. Moreover, additional requirements demanded by Host States’ authorities for already authorised AIFMs and a lack of transparency in Host Member States’ passport processing have also been identified as further difficulties encountered.
The decision whether or not to use the AIFMD passport and to market/manage AIFs cross-border tends to be embedded in the general business strategy of AIFMs. Nonetheless, we believe it important that the administrative fees charged for the processing of marketing notifications and further additional requirements are not excessive and thus do not render the use of the AIFM passport unattractive from the economic perspective.
Full EFAMA response
© EFAMA - European Fund and Asset Management Association
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