AIMA announces AIFMD implementation tools

London – 31 January 2013: The Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), the global hedge fund association, has launched an online self-diagnostic tool and detailed guide to implementation for firms needing to comply with the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD).

The diagnostic tool and implementation guide, jointly produced by AIMA and PwC, the professional services firm, will assist AIMA member firms in preparing for and tracking their compliance readiness.

The guide sketches out the various strategic and business options both EU and non-EU managers should consider when planning for compliance with the Directive. It is supplemented by an online self-diagnostic tool that will assist managers as they approach the relevant implementation deadline.

Andrew Baker, AIMA’s CEO, said: “We hope that these tools will enable hedge fund firms to get a better sense of the steps that they will need to take in order to respond to and comply with the provisions of the AIFMD.

“The AIFMD is a complicated piece of legislation. It is being implemented in EU Member States in a variety of different ways, while non-EU or ‘third country’ jurisdictions are also taking differing approaches to it. This leaves hedge fund firms across the world facing a lot of complex choices.

“Even now, the full legal and regulatory framework for the AIFMD has not been fully finalized. But the industry needs to start its implementation efforts now - since the sooner one starts, the less costly it will be in the end.”

Andrew Baker added: “The diagnostic tool and implementation guide are not intended to be a substitute for legal advice but rather, a means for individual firms to easily identify the areas of the Directive that are most relevant to them and indicate some of the strategic and operational choices they now face.”

The diagnostic tool and implementation guide form part of AIMA’s AIFMD Implementation Project, which seeks to provide guidance to the industry on complying with the Directive, create a forum for discussion within the industry on the practicability of the new requirements, and generate feedback on practical implementation issues that will be passed to policymakers.

As part of the project, AIMA will also publish a handbook that will aim to provide guidance regarding the AIFMD’s requirements in areas of legal uncertainty. This will appear once the national legal frameworks across the EU become clearer.