The Central Bank requires to approve the promoter of every Irish fund.  Heretofore, the Central Bank has not defined or set out the functions of the promoter.  The Central Bank has clarified this in its October 2010 revision of Guidance Note 2/96, wherein it states that the promoter is the entity which is the driving force in creating and establishing the fund.

The promoter decides what legal structure a fund will take, the proposed investment policy of the fund, where it invests and in what jurisdictions it should be sold.  In the context of corporate funds, the promoter selects the board of directors and chooses the various service providers (i.e. the administrator, trustee, investment manager and distributor).  In the context of non corporate funds, the promoter will also establish the management company.  The Central Bank is not in favour of arrangements where the promoter does not directly or indirectly (through a related entity), provide investment management and/or distribution services to the proposed fund.  That said, there has however been an acceptance of the use of “open architecture” within fund umbrella ranges and the greater use by fund promoters of third party platforms.  This is because the Central Bank has, since 1 September 2010, permitted a change in policy in relation to the naming of sub-funds within an umbrella fund, such that reference solely to the name of the investment manager of the sub-fund may be permitted in a sub-fund’s name provided that the name of the umbrella fund contains the name or brand name of the promoter.  Where a supplement to the prospectus is published in respect of the sub-fund, the name of the promoter must be clearly stated on the supplement cover.