By Ger van Nijkerken – Switzerland’s position at the heart of Europe means that the country’s alternative investment industry tends to be pressurised to follow European Union regulation, a situation that presents both challenges and opportunities. A new white paper issued by SwissAnalytics and Advent Software, entitled Trends in Alternative Investment Regulation – Key Issues for Swiss Managers, argues that single-strategy managers targeting EU investors may finds Ucits structures best suited to their requirements. The EU’s series of directives on Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities, which cover the cross-border marketing and distribution of funds open to retail investors,

By Simon Gray – As much as any country, Switzerland has observed with trepidation the European Union’s painful progress toward regulation of alternative investment fund managers. However, now that the EU has finally agreed on the top-level outline of the Directive on Alternative Investment Fund Managers, the country’s fund industry is gearing up to fall into line with the new rules, which will become part of the 27-member union’s law around the middle of 2013. Swiss alternative managers already have significant business ties across the EU that promise to help them adapt to the new environment. For example, many managers