About

Eric Romba is legal counsel at bsi which is an association representing the interests of companies that administer assets and whose business is directly related to the German capital investment law code. In his role, Romba can look back on several significant achievements such as providing legal advice on the directive on Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) as well as its implementation in Germany. ‘We have achieved the inclusion of significant amendments, both on European and domestic level, such as preventing a sales ban of open and closed public funds, an increase of the maximum debt financing quota from 30 to 60 percent and the introduction of alternative custodian options apart from depositary banks’. His work brings challenges in a complex market environment such as the ‘transition of an entire sector, the managers of closed funds, from a partly regulated market into fully regulated capital market’, and all this in volatile economic times. Beyond this part of his role is to ‘convince of the opportunities this regulation brings, and that they outweigh the risks’. His function is varied due to the ‘crossover of legal advice, communication tasks and the political networks involved’. Law firms should not engage in ‘lengthy and academic discussions’ and instead of saying ‘no, it’s not possible’, develop concrete suggestions for ways of how it might work’. Crucial is to stick to ‘clear points of view and voice an opinion even if it is not a popular one’.