Overview

Exacerbated by the financial crisis and driven by a desire to tighten the financial regulatory environment generally, the strengthening of the framework within which alternative investment funds (AIFs) and their managers (AIFMs) operate has featured high on the agenda of governments, policy makers and interest groups globally over the last 18 months.

The industry has traditionally been self-policing in nature. However, the shift towards systemic regulatory oversight has dominated the AIF sector, both at a domestic/regional level (most notably in the EU through  the publication in April 2009 of the proposed Alternative Investment Fund Managers’ Directive and in the US through a  number of legislative proposals ) as well as on a global scale (notably through the efforts of the G-20  nations and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in encouraging greater tax transparency).