FUND LEGISLATION
FUND LEGISLATION
UCITS: European Communities (Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities) Regulations, 2003;
Non-UCITS investment companies: Part XIII of the Companies Act, 1990;
Non-UCITS unit trust: Unit Trusts Act, 1990;
Investment Limited Partnerships (non-UCITS): Investment Limited Partnerships Act, 1994;
Non-UCITS common contractual funds: Investment Funds, Companies and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 2005.
NUMBER OF FUNDS
4,822 Irish regulated funds as of April, 2008 (Source: Financial Regulator)
2,164 non-Irish funds administered in Ireland as of June, 2007 (Source: IFIA)
NUMBER OF FUNDS BY CATEGORY
All data as of April, 2008 and include sub-funds (Source: Financial Regulator)
| UCITS | 2926 |
| Non-UCITS | 1,896 |
| Retail Non-UCITS | 564 |
| Professional Investor Non-UCITS | 263 |
| Qualifying Investor Non-UCITS | 1,066 |
| Closed-ended funds | 329 |
There are no official statistics available on fund strategies.
ADMINISTERED FUND ASSETS
4,822 Irish regulated funds as of April, 2008 (Source: Financial Regulator). There are no up-to-date official statistics available on fund strategies as such. The numbers of Irish registered funds by regulatory category are provided above.
IRELAND
As of June, 2007 there were 2,752 non-Irish funds (including sub-funds) administered in Ireland (Source: Irish Funds Industry Association industry survey and Financial Regulator).
As of December, 2007 there were US$1,011 billion in assets in alternative funds administered in Ireland, comprising both Irish and non-Irish funds (Source: Irish Funds Industry Association; Lipper Irish Funds Encyclopaedia).
REGULATOR
The Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority (commonly known as the ‘Financial Regulator’). The Financial Regulator is a constituent part of the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland, formerly knows as the Central Bank.
Address: Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority, Financial Institutions and Funds Authorisation, PO Box 9138, College Green, Dublin 2, Ireland.
SERVICE PROVIDERS TO ALTERNATIVE FUNDS
There are a large number of law-firms which provide legal services to the alternative investment funds industry here, both the leading commercial firms and smaller niche practices. All of the main accountancy firms have large operations here.
There are approximately 50 fund administrators active in Ireland, many of which have affiliated custodian operations in Ireland, the majority of which would have alternative investment fund servicing capabilities.
There are no available statistics on Irish corporate service providers as generally these entities may not be required to be regulated in Ireland. Generally, fund administrators or specialised transfer agency companies would provide those services normally provided by corporate services provides, excluding company secretarial services which are also provided by corporate secretarial affiliates of the law-firms or certain independent firms.
Investment banks involved in prime brokerage do not typically provide this service out of Ireland and it is more commonly associated with other financial centres such as London and New York.
There are no official statistics on the number of placement agents in Ireland. Local stock exchange The Irish Stock Exchange Limited. Local fund industry body Irish Funds Industry Association. Promotion agency for funds/financial sector Industrial Development Agency and Irish Funds Industry Association.
DOUBLE TAXATION TREATIES
Ireland has forty four tax agreements, which provide for the elimination or mitigation of double taxation with the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Zambia.
Forth three out these tax treaties have exchange of information clauses that are based on the OECD Model Treaty. Switzerland is the only country without such a clause. Malta is the only EU Member State with which Ireland does not have a tax treaty.
TAX INFORMATION EXCHANGE AGREEMENTS
Isle of Man signed 28th April, 2008 but is subject to implementation by secondary legislation. There is one in negotiation with Jersey.
Under the European Savings Directive, all European Member States and a number of dependant territories are required to exchange certain information and/or impose a withholding tax on particular types of payments made to certain individuals. Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino and Switzerland are not participating in automatic exchange of information but are exchanging information on a request basis. Their participation is confined to imposing a withholding tax. The other dependant territories that are participating are Anguilla, Aruba, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Island, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles and Turks and Caicos Islands.
ALTERNATIVE FUND, MANAGER AND SERVICE PROVIDER INFORMATION TYPES OF ALTERNATIVE FUND VEHICLE
– Open-ended or closed-ended investment company with fixed or variable capital;
– Open-ended or closed-ended unit trust;
– Open-ended or closed-ended common contractual funds;
– Open-ended or closed-ended investment limited partnerships. Each of the above may be established as single or multi-portfolio funds. Investment companies and common contractual fund sub-funds have statutory ring-fencing. Each of the above may be established as single or multi-class funds.
AVAILABLE TYPES OF CORPORATE VEHICLE
Single portfolio company
Segregated portfolio company (umbrella)
Variable or fixed capital company
TYPES OF REGULATORY FUND CATEGORY
UCITS (no minimum initial subscription requirement);
Retail Non-UCITS (no minimum initial subscription requirement except for private equity funds, in respect of which it is EUR 12,500);
Professional Investor Non-UCITS (minimum initial subscription of EUR 125,000);
Qualifying Investor Non-UCITS (minimum initial subscription of EUR 250,000, investor wealth tests and risk acknowledgement);
The following additional fund categories are not widely used either due to their tax status (non-designated funds) or the narrow investor requirements (collective investor funds):
Non-designated funds (no minimum subscription requirement: only available as variable capital investment companies and may not be sold to the public, these are private investment fund vehicles and are subject to Irish corporation tax at a rate of 10%/12.5% on income/capital gains);
Collective investor funds (available to life assurance companies, pension funds and other collective investors: tax exempt, does not have to be sold publicly).
AUDIT REQUIREMENT (Y/N? LOCAL?)
Yes, annual, local
FINANCIAL STATEMENT REQUIREMENTS
Yes, all semi-annual unaudited and annual audited. At the time of writing, the Irish Regulator has just announced that Qualifying Investor Funds will no longer have to prepare semiannual unaudited accounts.
REGULATORY FEES
Currently, EUR 2,200 per year for each fund plus EUR 550 per sub-fund up to a maximum of EUR 4,950. This is reviewed on an annual basis by the Irish Regulator.
OVERALL COST OF FUND ESTABLISHMENT
Legal costs will vary from law-firm to law-firm and depending on the type of fund and other factors. There is no up-front regulatory fee. There is a small government levy for incorporating corporate funds and other initial statutory filings.
REGULATORY APPROVAL TIME
Qualifying Investor Funds: 24 hours following filing of prospectus, constitutive document, principal service agreements, application request, completed regulatory application forms and various confirmations assuming promoter, investment manager, administrator, custodian and directors have already been approved by the Regulator and the application is within normal prescribed parameters and any derogation requests have been obtained in advance.
Professional Investor Non-UCITS: if promoter approval is required, this must be obtained generally before the fund application is submitted to the Regulator. The promoter approval will generally take between one and two weeks. Once promoter approval is obtained, and the fund application is submitted, the Regulator endeavours to respond to the initial application within two weeks and subsequent responses from the fund each time within one week. Normally, two to three sets of comments can be expected, depending on the nature of the fund, resulting in the application spending around four weeks in total with the Regulator.
Retail Non-UCITS: Similar to Professional Investor Fund above.
UCITS: Similar to Retail Non-UCITS, but in addition, self-managed UCITS and UCITS common contractual fund and unit trust management companies must be approved as part of the process of seeking regulatory approval for the UCITS, which generally can result in the addition of two to four weeks to the overall timing.
OVERALL ESTABLISHMENT TIME
In each case from a standing start (i.e. fund promoter, investment manager and directors have not been previously approved by the Irish regulator, but fund service providers have been chosen) to fund authorisation.
UCITS
Tends to take approximately 3 months
Non-UCITS
Retail: approximately 2 months;
Professional Investor Funds: approximately 2 months;
Qualifying Investor Funds: 1 month.
