UK-EU agreement delay "is good news for Guernsey’s fund sector"

Friday 17 July 2020

Further delays in the UK’s Brexit negotiations to secure market access between the EU and UK can be seen as a positive for Guernsey’s fund industry, according to one local provider.

News that the UK and EU have not met their target date of June 30 to secure access to use the well-established AIFMD and UCITS route for fund marketing into Europe came as no surprise to Shaun Robert, Director of International Fund Management, which provides independent non-EU manager (AIFM) services.

"Failure to meet the recent deadline is good news for IFM and Guernsey’s funds industry, as we have well-established cooperation agreements in place and are in a much stronger position than the UK, whose future access into Europe is still very much undecided," said Mr Robert.

Guernsey was one of first jurisdictions to be approved by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to provide third-country passporting without conditions. The island’s non-EU status and existing cooperation agreements means it will continue to be able to have access to market into Europe via the well-trodden National Private Placement Regimes (NPPR).

With Brexit uncertainty in the financial sector both in the UK and the EU expected to continue at least into 2022, Mr Robert said UK promoters are likely to lose the opportunity to use the well-established AIFMD and UCITS route for fund marketing into Europe.

"Given that our current access to market into Europe via National Private Placement Regimes will be unaffected, we see this as an opportunity for Guernsey," he said. 

Pictured top: Shaun Robert.