Fund board directors – both independent and executive – and the teams that work closely with them, in the UK and across Europe, are facing ever-increasing regulation, scrutiny and direct accountability.
In the last five years alone, the fund management industry has seen a slew of targeted regulatory interventions in Ireland (the CBI’s CP86 in 2017), in Luxembourg (the CSSF’s Circular 18/698 in 2018), in the UK (the FCA’s Asset Management Market Study in 2019); more recently ESMA has put in place a EU-wide review of UCITs costs and charges. Tick-box compliance and blindly seeking to follow the rules is giving way for a need for a greater appreciation of investment governance, and fund boards and their directors are directly in the firing line.
Take, for instance, the FCA in the UK. It is very clear on what it terms the ‘primacy’ of the fund board in an asset management firm’s governance structure.
The FCA’s expectations that fund boards will robustly challenge the wider firm to deliver on its responsibilities to investors is more resounding now than ever. And this is increasingly being played out in other money-centre jurisdictions.
With this increasingly important and demanding role in mind, many firms are actively examining how effective their fund boards and their directors are at discharging their duties and in tackling head-on future product governance challenges coming down the track.
And here’s where Fund Boards Council (FBC) is able to help.
FBC is an expert led organisation with our sole focus on fund governance and the unique needs, opportunities and challenges facing fund boards, in the UK and cross-border. We are well-established and are attuned to the specific dynamics of fund boards.
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