ESMA expands list of countries considered for AIFMD passport

14 Oct 15

The European Securities and Markets Authority is to begin assessing whether Australia, Canada, the Cayman Islands, the Isle of Man, Bermuda and Japan should get access to the marketing ‘passport’ under the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive.

The European Securities and Markets Authority is to begin assessing whether Australia, Canada, the Cayman Islands, the Isle of Man, Bermuda and Japan should get access to the marketing 'passport' under the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive.

Criteria unchanged

Maijoor said ESMA would continue to look at each country individually, and apply the same critieria as it had for the three that had received its go ahead. These were: i) investor protection, ii) market disruption, iii) competition and iv) the monitoring of systemic risk.

The Directive itself also provides that, where ESMA considers that there are no significant obstacles in relation to these four elements, ESMA should issue positive advice.

Maijoor said there may also be other criteria that needed to be taken into account which were outside its area of expertise, such as fiscal matters or anti-money laundering rules.