On 30 November 2015, the Central Bank of Ireland issued a consultation paper setting out details of proposed policy amendments and technical changes to its AIF Rulebook.  The consultation is open until 24 February 2016.

Proposed policy amendments include:

• Extending the category of investors who are provided with an exemption from the eligibility criteria and minimum subscription requirement to invest in a qualifying investor AIF, to include the AIFM or an entity in the AIFM’s group
• Requiring AIF depositaries which provide services to non-Irish AIFs to provide a quarterly return to the Central Bank even if similar information is provided by other entities, e.g. an administrator
• Aligning the rules which apply to collateral received by retail investor AIFs under an OTC derivative or a repo/securities lending contract and the rules which reference external credit ratings with the rules recently introduced for UCITS funds
• The introduction of a requirement for AIFMs and AIF management companies to produce two sets of half yearly financial accounts covering the first and second six months respectively of the financial year (in addition to the annual audited accounts).  This brings AIFMs and AIF management companies in line with a similar requirement recently introduced for UCITS management companies.

Contributed by Patricia Taylor