On January 19, 2016, ESMA published a letter from the European Commission, dated December 17, 2015, on ESMA's advice and opinion on the passport under the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive. ESMA advised the Commission in July 2015 on the extension of the EU passport under the AIFMD to managers and funds in to Guernsey, Jersey and Switzerland but advised that due to a lack of evidence for Singapore, Hong Kong and the US, it was unable to provide assessments for those jurisdictions. In the letter, the European Commission asks ESMA to provide an assessment for the US, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Canada, Isle of Man, Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Australia by June 30, 2016. In addition, the Commission requests that ESMA provides: (i) a more detailed assessment of the capacity of third country supervisory authorities and their enforcement track record; and (ii) a preliminary assessment of the expected inflow of funds by type and size into the EU from the relevant third countries. The Commission concurs that a further opinion from ESMA on the functioning of the EU passport under the AIFMD and on the operation of the National Private Placement Regime is warranted once the AIFMD has been transposed into all of the Member States. It is noted that such an opinion would be useful ahead of the review of the AIFMD planned for 2017.
The Commission's letter is available at: https://www.esma.europa.eu/press-news/esma-news/esma-publishes-letter-europeancommission-aifmd-passport.
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