Finance Malta, in collaboration with the Malta Funds Industry Association, recently held the latest in its series of educational clinics on the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive and its impact on Malta.
The Maltese fund industry is increasingly making the headlines in the financial media, which have highlighted the island’s attractiveness as a domicile.
Journalists and financial analysts progressively see Malta as a complementary EU jurisdiction to traditional fund domiciles, where the regulatory environment supports innovative strategies and solutions.
The event investigated the practical implications for investors, managers, custodians and other service providers.
Paul Ellis, regional head of product solutions (Europe), HSBC Securities Services, Ireland, who has over 20 years’ financial services experience, focused on the provision of asset servicing solutions to a broad universe of global investment funds.
There was also a panel discussion to evaluate the directive’s impact on Malta, involving Ganado and Associates’ Andre Zerafa, HSBC Bank Malta’s Puneet Gupta, and PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Joseph Camilleri.
Around 70 fund managers are currently operating in Malta, while 26 fund administrators such as HSBC, Apex, Custom House, Praxis, TMF and Valletta Fund Services have been recognised by the Malta Financial Services Authority.
Six global custody providers have a presence in Malta, including HSBC. During the session, it was agreed that Malta has the capacity and expertise to help the fund industry continue to expand, with the ‘Big Four’ accounting firms all established on the island, adding weight to the small and medium-sized accountancy firms and large number of law firms servicing the fund sector.
Malta is now in an excellent position to attract further service providers – particularly custodians – to increase its share of UCITS business as a consequence of the new directive.
Interest in Malta is also set to grow as fund managers are currently assessing whether it might be more cost-effective to establish a permanent base in the EU.
Malta Funds Industry Association board member Joseph Agius also addressed participants.
The session was streamed online and the event is now available as a podcast. For information visit www.financemalta.org.