BNY Mellon has received formal approval from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to provide trustee and depositary services to alternative investment funds (AIFs) under the Alternative Investment Fund Manager Directive (AIFMD).
Following the approval by the FCA of its Variation of Permissions (VoP) application – which was submitted to the regulator earlier this year – BNY Mellon is now authorised as an AIFMD depositary in six European markets: the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
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22 July 2014 marks the deadline for European Union alternative investment fund managers (AIFMs) looking to market their EU AIFs via the pan-European marketing passport introduced by the Directive to have submitted their application for AIFMD authorisation.
Peter Craft, head of trustee & depositary services for Europe, Middle East & Africa at BNY Mellon, said: "AIFMD has been a major focus for BNY Mellon over the past 18 months and we have been leading the way in driving the compliance effort and ensuring that clients are ready for the July 22 deadline.
We are already servicing a number of extremely large global fund managers – who have been approved by the FCA as AIFMs, with BNY Mellon as their nominated depositary – under the terms of the Directive. By the time we hit the July 22 deadline, we will have been able to onboard the vast majority of our 70-plus AIF clients."
Hani Kablawi, EMEA head of Asset Servicing at BNY Mellon, said: "We were among the first out of the blocks to establish the prime broker agreements stipulated by AIFMD and to roll-out enhanced systems enabling the required functionality around oversight, monitoring and reconciliation.
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By GlobalDataWe were also at the forefront when it came to building the feeds – from more than 20 external data providers – needed to take in the data that will allow us to discharge our duties as an AIFMD depositary.
It has required a major effort in terms of planning, investment and man-hours to reach this position, but I’m pleased to say we and our clients are ready for the July 22 deadline."
