The Malta Financial Services Authority announced on the 11 February 2016 the launch of a new fund regime for Alternative Investment Funds – the Notified AIF. The Notified AIF will not require licensing by the Malta FSA and will not be subject to ongoing supervision. A list of Notified AIFs in good standing will be available on the Malta FSA’s website. The Malta FSA expects the Notified AIFs regime to start be applied from around mid-Quarter 2 of 2016.
The applicability criteria are as follows:
Target Investor Base: The Notified AIF framework will target alternative investment funds promoted to qualifying or professional investors.
Legal Structure: The Notified AIF can be established as any structure allowed under Maltese law.
AIFMD Compliant Manager: The alternative investment funds falling within the scope of the notification process will be required to be managed by a full-scope Alternative Investment Fund Manager (AIFM). The AIFM will assume full responsibility for the Notified AIF and for the fulfilment of the obligations of the Notified AIF. Any EU/EEA AIFMs may submit a notification to the MFSA for an AIF to be included on the List of Notified AIFs. Third country AIFMs may submit a request for a notification of an AIF once the country where these have been established has been granted passporting rights pursuant to the AIFMD.
Regulatory Status: The process of notification of AIFs will be available to collective investment schemes which are not already in possession of a licence issued by the MFSA in terms of the Investment Services Act.
Timeframes: Within 10 business days from the date of filing of a complete notification pack, the Malta FSA will proceed to include the AIF in the List of Notified AIFs.
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