Regulation
Dear CEO….
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued an interim update letter for the Asset Management & Alternatives Portfolios, following a regular interim review of supervisory strategies. The update reflects changes in the external risk environment, work completed since the Alternatives portfolio letter in August 2022 and Asset Management portfolio letter in February 2023, as well as the FCA’s forward areas of focus for this sector over the next year. Ignites Europe has a review, highlighting particularly the question of whether fund houses are ‘adequately resourced’ to cope with regulatory changes.
For FBC corporate members, FBC Senior Adviser, Brandon Horwitz is currently working on a Memo highlighting the key takeaways and actions required for fund boards – look out for it in your inbox soon!
Distributors dwell on value
While the UK government confirmed last month that asset managers will be able to apply to sell EU Ucits funds to UK investors under the forthcoming overseas funds regime (OFR) without having to comply with local value assessment requirements, Ignites Europe writes that UK distributors may drop EU funds that omit value information.
Market News
Fit for purpose?
The Central Bank announced its intention to commission an independent review of the fitness and probity (F&P) regime to ‘ensure that it remains effective into the future’. This follows the Irish Financial Services Appeals Tribunal (IFSAT) finding a number of issues relating to a particular fund director review. The Financial Times (FT) and Ignites Europe reports.
Domiciled differences
As the investment landscape evolves, Investment Officer reviews the changing competitiveness of Luxembourg for domiciling investment funds, particularly in comparison to jurisdictions such as Ireland.
Governance
Committee focus
As nominating/governance committees face more scrutiny than ever before, global executive search and leadership advisory firm, Spencer Stuart, looks at three key focus areas as they navigate 2024.
NED nuggets
Law firm, Farrer & Co., summarises lessons learned for Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) from Carillion, with some useful nuggets relevant to fund board NEDs.
Several of the news outlet cited in this blog require registration or subscription. Also, FBC takes no responsibility for the accuracy or quality of the news in the links provided above, and nor are the views and comments representative of FBC or its members, unless expressly stated. Content stored on the FBC portal is freely accessible for FBC members.
