EUROPE: Challenges in the European Supervision of Asset Management

Monday October 22 2012

Steven Maijoor, ESMA Chair, addressed the BVI (Bundesverband Investment and Asset Management) Asset Management Conference on 9 October 2012, in which he provided an overview of some of the key topics on which ESMA has focused since its creation in January 2011 and the work streams that are of particular interest to the asset management industry.

Mr Maijoor spent time discussing the latest developments on ESMA’s work in the context of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD). While the Level 2 measures are being finalised by the European Commission, they have continued to make progress on three main work streams.

With regard to the guidelines on remuneration of AIFMs, ESMA published their consultation paper in June and the deadline for feedback was last month. They are now analysing that feedback, including the valuable input from BVI, with a view to adopting final guidelines by the end of the year.

Another significant work stream under the AIFMD is the negotiation of the co-operation agreements with non-EU authorities, which have to be in place by July 2013. ESMA is leading the negotiations on behalf of the EU competent authorities. This makes sense both in terms of efficiency and in helping achieve a consistent result across jurisdictions. A common text has been agreed on the EU side and ESMA are now negotiating with their non-EU counterparts on the basis of that text. They recognise the importance of having the agreements in place in a timely manner and will look to make progress as quickly as possible, bearing in mind the need to have robust arrangements that deliver what is required by the AIFMD.

Follow-up work on the discussion paper on key concepts of the AIFMD and types of AIFM that was published at the beginning of the year was also mentioned. Mr Maijoor reiterated the fact that ESMA are aware that the outcome of this work, and in particular the technical standards required by Article 4(4) of the Directive aimed at determining types of AIFM, will be an important element of the future AIFMD framework. It was stated that ESMA are close to finalising a consultation paper for publication in the coming months.