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Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: Malta continues to gain ground as a hedge fund domicile in Europe in part because of its flexibility with fund structures, according to delegates at the recent Opalesque Malta Roundtable. "As part of the AIFMD implementation process, we wanted to allow a certain degree of flexibility for third-country fund managers and also for de minimis fund managers, so we retained the Professional Investor Fund Regime (PIF) for the setting up of funds by these managers," said Dr. Christopher P. Buttigieg, Director of the Securities and Markets Supervision Unit, MFSA.
"The regime regulates the governance and transparency of funds which target professional investors. Therefore, these type of fund managers can set-up funds, which although not fully compliant with AIFMD requirements (as this is not required by the directive for these type of fund managers), are still subject to regulation and supervision, which should give some degree of comfort to the investors."
Malta has attracted both investment managers and family offices by maintaining the PIF structure despite the changes included in the AIFMD. The country has also implemented a separate licensing regime for de minimis managers that holds them to a slightly stricter regime than that of AIFMD.
"We have developed this licensing regime for de minimis managers after we have had a number of informal discussions with those managers," added Joseph Bannister, Chairman, MFSA.
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