Guernsey Funds: Registered Or Authorised - Which To Choose?

The regulatory approval process

The registered fund regime offers a significantly faster approval process than that of authorised funds (other than QIFs): three days for RCIS Funds and one day for PIFs, relying in each case upon increased due diligence obligations on the part of the fund's administrator.

Authorised Funds which do not satisfy the QIF criteria will be subject to GFSC scrutiny at the outset and, consequently, the authorisation process will take significantly longer than the registration process (typically somewhere between four to six weeks).

Authorised funds which do satisfy the QIF criteria can access the same fast-track (3 day) approval process as RCIS Funds. QIFs, however, are limited in the types of investors they admit (unlike registered funds).