On January 28, the Dutch regulator (Authority for Financial Markets (AFM)) announced that the Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) Directive’s Annex IV reporting obligation has been postponed for non-EU managers until further notice.

As is the case in each of the countries of the European Union, for a manager of an alternative investment fund (the manager being an “AIFM” and the fund being an “AIF” under the AIFM Directive) to be able to conduct marketing in the Netherlands and to be able to use the Dutch private placement rules it is necessary first to file with the local regulator. Once that registration is in place, the follow-up obligations include filing a semi-annual or quarterly risk report, known in the AIFM Directive as Annex IV. The first Annex IV filing is due on January 31in each EU country where the AIFM has filed for marketing.

The Dutch Central Bank (DNB) and the AFM have announced that the DNB will send a letter to all registered non-EU AIFMs in due course informing them as to the updated requirements for their Annex IV fund reporting in the Netherlands and when such reporting will now be due. Given that the Annex IV report is an EU legal requirement for AIFMs, the AFM has clarified that no enforcement action will be taken against non-EU AIFMs for failing to report as of January 31.

The AFM’s announcement has since been followed on January 29by an email sent to many registered AIFMs from the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) that the FCA has been experiencing ongoing systems issues with its electronic filing system, known as GABRIEL (GAthering Better Regulatory Information Electronically), which it is currently working to resolve. As a result, many AIFMs (whether EU or non-EU) have been having difficulty accessing GABRIEL or, if they have been able to log in, to complete their data-entry sessions once within the system. As with the situation in the Netherlands, the FCA has announced that it will not take any enforcement action against firms affected by these issues for a failure to report for the relevant AIF by January 31. However, this is provided that the AIFM submits its reports to the FCA for the AIF as soon as possible after the issues with the system have been resolved. 

Any non-EU AIFMs that do have filing details from the Dutch DNB or from the UK FCA and who can access the system should file before the January 31 deadline or otherwise in accordance with the relevant regulator’s instructions.

The Dutch AFM’s announcement (third item on the page) is available here.