Update on Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) Directive

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

On 11 November 2010 the European Parliament finally approved the Directive on Alternative Investment Fund Managers. The Directive has changed significantly since the European Commission's original proposal of April 2009, not least in the "third country" provisions dealing with the application of the Directive to non-EU alternative investment fund managers (AIFM) and alternative investment funds (AIF).

Key points to note are:

• EU Member States have until 2013 to implement the Directive into their local law;
• from 2013
• • EU AIFM authorized under the Directive will be able to sell EU AIF on passported basis across the EU to institutional and sophisticated investors. National private placement regimes will be discontinued;