The Gibraltar Funds and Investment Association (GFIA) held the first of its AIFMD Series of training seminars at the Elliot hotel on Wednesday morning. The seminar consisted of two separate presentations. Joey Garcia from ISOLAS delivered the first presentation which dealt with the legal definition of a Collective Investment Scheme under Gibraltar Law, and the alignment of this definition with that of an Alternative Investment Fund under AIFMD. As well as covering the principle elements of the definition under the Directive, namely, the concept of a Collective Investment Undertaking under European law, the concept of ‘raising capital’ as defined by ESMA, and the concept of a ‘defined investment policy’ under the Directive, Joey also dealt with the exemptions available from the definition of an AIF. Here the focus of the presentation was on both family office, and joint venture exemptions that could be available, and the mechanism for understanding the nature of these exemptions and how they might apply.
The second presentation of the seminar was delivered by Joanne Beiso, Head of Funds at the Financial Services Commission. Her presentation was focused on the application process for small, out of scope AIFMs, and the relevant forms for completion along with applicable fees. The presentation also covered a number of questions raised by the industry in relation to registration requirements for non-EU managers, and PCC structures.
The event was extremely well attended with well over 100 participants and a full house. GFIA is expected to schedule the second seminar in the series in the first quarter of 2014.
ISOLAS continues to be involved at the forefront of AIFMD developments in Gibraltar and Joey commented that he was delighted to be involved in such an event. ‘Knowledge sharing and collaboration is extremely important in moving our industry forward, and it is great to see an event like this proving so popular.’ Joey heads the Funds and Investment Services team at ISOLAS, and is involved as a member of the FSC created AIFMD working group, the FSC Funds Panel. He also chairs the GFIA technical committee.
