Key Topics in Regulation

AIMA does a lot of work in some specific and some more general areas. Clicking on any of the topics below will allow you to see more information on our work in that area.

Americas

US Commodity Pool Operators and US Commodity Trading Advisors

AIMA regularly advocates on behalf of its members relative to their CFTC/NFA obligations, as well as for increased harmonization of the SEC and CFTC to reduce redundancies and provide greater clarity on differences in reporting metrics and conduct rules. AIMA also provides its members with a wealth of educational content related to these obligations, whether through workshops, webinars or online resources available on demand.

US Investment Advisers

Recent advocacy work includes topics such as marketing rules, corporate climate change disclosures, proposed changes to position reporting (including short sales and synthetic positions), cross border application of European ESG disclosures to the public, insider trading enforcement, the impact of Chinese company delistings on minority shareholders, digital asset investment and valuation, alternative data usage, leverage relative to financial stability initiatives and regulatory harmonization.

US Investment Companies

AIMA’s advocacy and educational work regularly touches on issues of importance to all investment companies. Recent efforts have addressed recent FinCEN requirements for beneficial ownership reporting, new SEC rules for use of derivatives, potential changes to investment company cross trading practices and the new fair valuation framework for fund investments. Workshops, webinars and online resources are available to all members and can be downloaded on demand.

EMEA

AIFMD

The European Commission has published a proposal to review the AIFMD. The legislative proposal covers delegation, liquidity risk management, loan funds, investors disclosures, depositaries and regulatory reporting matters. The EU's Cross-Border Distribution of Funds Directive and Regulation came into force on 2 August 2021.

UK Investment Firms Prudential Regime

Effective 1 January 2022 with final rules published following three Policy Statements. AIMA has published an IFPR implementation guide.

IFR/D

A new bespoke EU prudential regime. Effective from 26 June 2021.

MiFID

From ESMA proposals to modify the scope of the transaction reporting requirement to FCA proposals to remove RTS 27 and RTS 28 best execution reports, reviews of the MiFID II/MiFIR regulatory framework at EU and UK level are currently underway. See here for an overview of developments and AIMA’s regulatory and policy engagement.

EU Remuneration

IFR/IFD remuneration requirements effective as of 26 June 2021. EBA and ESMA have publish their updated IFD and MiFID II remuneration guidelines, respectively. Notable other EU remuneration requirements under AIFMD and the UCITS Directive are also linked.

UK Remuneration

New requirements for investment firms and CPMIs effective 1 January 2022. AIMA has responded to the FCA's third IFPR consultation which sought views on remuneration disclosure requirements. Final rules published on IFPR remuneration requirements.

Tax (EU)

AIMA’s current European tax advocacy encompasses key topics such as hybrids and other mismatches, financial transactions tax and EU non-cooperative tax jurisdictions.

Tax (UK)

AIMA’s current UK tax advocacy focuses on the UK funds review, asset holding companies, securitisation companies tax regime, and UK tax on asset management businesses.

UCITS

The European Commission has proposed targeted amendments to the UCITS Directive on liquidity management tools, delegation and reporting. The proposals are now being scrutinised by the European Parliament and Council. Separately, the EU and the UK have both confirmed extension of the UCITS exemption under PRIIPs to 31 December 2022 in the EU and 31 December 2026 in the UK.

UK Policy Vision

AIMA and the ACC are working with policymakers to promote and develop the UK’s alternative investment management and non-bank lending sectors to renew the UK’s position as one of the world’s pre-eminent financial centre, boost innovation and SME financing and help build a better-regulated financial services industry.

UK Regulatory Change

HMT, FCA, BoE and other UK government departments have been considering the future of UK regulation for asset managers and funds and AIMA is following these developments and engaging on matters of interest to members.

Global

AML and Beneficial Ownership

AIMA provided views to FinCEN on their proposal for Beneficial Ownership Reporting. AIMA has published a position paper on the European Commission proposal for an AML Regulation.

Cyber and Technology

In recent years, cyber security has increasingly become the top global risk for business, with regulators and policy-makers also paying increased attention to financial institutions’ cyber security planning.

Data Regulation

From assisting members with the implementation of data privacy laws to engaging with data regulators and international standard setting bodies on potential conflicts with financial regulation, AIMA is helping the industry to navigate the evolving data landscape.

Digital Assets

AIMA serves as the global voice of the alternative investment management industry in the digital assets space.

Financial Stability

Financial stability and the topics of liquidity risk management and risks related to the use of leverage are high on the agenda of global and regional supervisory bodies following COVID-19-related market events. AIMA continuously engages with various policymakers around the globe to share information and insights on our industry's management of such risks.

Loan Fund Vehicles

AIMA's private credit affiliate, the Alternative Credit Council, leads global advocacy on loan fund vehicles such as ELTIF, LTAF and BDCs.

Operational Resilience

Operational resilience is expected to be a key regulatory focus over the coming years. The aim of regulators is to bring about change in how the finance industry thinks about operational resilience in order to build a more resilient financial system. The European Commission has published a proposal for a regulation on digital operational resilience (DORA). The UK regulators' new rules relating to operational resilience will come into force on 31 March 2022.

Outsourcing

The increasing use of outsourcing by regulated entities is of growing importance to a number of supervisory authorities. ESMA guidelines on cloud outsourcing came into force on 31 July 2021. The CBI has issued new outsourcing guidelines.

Reporting

AIMA's advocacy focuses on the improvement of a more efficient and streamlined reporting framework across the reporting regimes. The European Commission published a proposal for a European Single Access Point and outlined its Supervisory Data Strategy, introducing a range of new initiatives and actions to improve EU-wide regulatory reporting. The SEC has proposed amendments to Form PF which would require large hedge fund advisers to report information on key events within one business day.