The director general of the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) said the implementation phase will be “extremely challenging” for many asset managers who will have to ensure they comply with many different regulatory standards.
The changes include MiFID II, the Financial Transaction Tax (FTT), new UCITS regulation and the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), many of which are expected to come into effect within the next two years.
“The landscape of the proposed regulatory reform is demanding, and even a single subset is complex and overlapping,” said De Proft.
He also said there is “uncertainty” and “a lack of finalisation in a number of areas” because many of the reforms are still in a proposal, draft or consultation stage. But despite this, he argued “there is enough clarity that firms can begin to prepare for and respond to various regulatory challenges”.
“Time out”
EFAMA president Christian Dargnat, said the asset management industry needs “time out” from “this avalanche of reforms” in order to assess the impact of existing regulation first.
He said: “As an asset manager some of the reforms represent huge costs, but it would be stupid to say we go against the reforms because asset managers and regulators share the same targets and objectives.”
However, when talking specifically about the FTT, Dargnat argued that the implementation of this tax “will destroy jobs” and create a “regulatory arbitrage in which citizens will have to pay the price”.
During a reception at the House of Commons at the beginning of this year, Dargnat said that new regulation needs to ensure there is a “level playing field” for financial products.
