For the second consecutive year, Malta has been coveted with Europe’s Most Favoured Domicile award at the Hedge Funds Review 13th European Fund of Hedge Funds Awards 2014.

The European Fund of Hedge Funds Awards remains the only signature event held exclusively for the European fund of hedge fund sector and as such continues to attract the top names from the industry.

The Hedge Fund Awards are determined on the basis of a rigorous methodology that provides quantitative and qualitative analysis and voted by an impartial panel of judges which include top professionals from the funds industry.

Kenneth Farrugia, chairman of Finance Malta and the Malta Funds Industry Association, said: “Accession to the European Union 11 years ago marked the start of Malta’s journey towards becoming the inter­national fund domicile it is today. The island’s hedge fund industry has continued to grow year-on-year, solidifying its position as a fund domicile of international repute and I am delighted that Malta’s value proposition has been recognised once again this year by the judges of the well-respected and pre-eminent Hedge Fund Review Awards.

“Malta’s competitive advantage is evidently underpinned by the presence of an accessible and pro-business regulator, a strong operational infrastructure driven by high quality, legal, audit and fund consultancy services as well as the presence of service clusters in the asset servicing space. These critical success factors are frequently mentioned by fund promoters as the key criteria influencing their choice of Malta as a domicile.”

Malta continues to be pro-active in this field and the Malta Financial Services Authority earlier this year issued rules for the setting up of Loan Funds which were the first of their kind to be issued by a national supervisory authority in Europe and which in turn have spurred a number of enquiries by international fund promoters seeking to use investment fund vehicles to invest in loans.

The MFSA also recently issued a consultation document aimed at Private Equity Funds in order to further strengthen Malta’s appeal in this space.

Anatoli Grech, executive secretary of the Malta Funds Industry Association said: “The recognition of Malta as the Most Favoured Euro­pean Fund Domicile has been awarded for the second consecutive year. This clearly shows that Malta has further strengthened its reputation as a world class financial jurisdiction and its appeal to the various hedge fund stakeholders seeking to establish funds in a European domicile. This indeed augurs very well for the fund’s industry in Malta and all the industry’s stakeholders”.