15 Dec 2011
Offshore centres are set to prosper and gain market share in the near future, according to research conducted by Apex Fund Services (“Apex”).
The global research analysed how changes in the asset management industry, following on from the market crisis, will impact domiciliation and fund servicing patterns from 2012 to 2015.
Apex conducted the research three years after the onset of the credit crunch and more than a year after regulatory initiatives such as the AIFM Directive and the Dodd-Frank Act and identified the impact of increased regulation upon patterns of fund servicing and domiciliation.
By interviewing 100 fund managers and investors located across the globe, Apex also found that investors are likely to have more influence on managers’ domiciliation and fund servicing decisions between 2012 and 2015. They also anticipate greater specialisation in fund jurisdictions, service provider consolidation and the role of executive fund directors growing.
The global research analysed how changes in the asset management industry, following on from the market crisis, will impact domiciliation and fund servicing patterns from 2012 to 2015.
Apex conducted the research three years after the onset of the credit crunch and more than a year after regulatory initiatives such as the AIFM Directive and the Dodd-Frank Act and identified the impact of increased regulation upon patterns of fund servicing and domiciliation.
By interviewing 100 fund managers and investors located across the globe, Apex also found that investors are likely to have more influence on managers’ domiciliation and fund servicing decisions between 2012 and 2015. They also anticipate greater specialisation in fund jurisdictions, service provider consolidation and the role of executive fund directors growing.
Peter Hughes, group managing director, Apex Fund Services, said “Assumptions that fund jurisdictions outside of the EU would suffer in the wake of the market crisis and that investors would not want to be in offshore funds have proven unfounded according to the research. The report concludes that offshore jurisdictions remain as attractive to managers as they did prior to the financial crisis. The best opportunity for domiciles in the new climate will be those that have an identifiable niche.
“What is increasingly clear is that investors’ interest and involvement in domiciliation and fund servicing matters is a fast growing trend. Institutional investors are evidently requiring greater standards of transparency and are favouring those offshore centres that are well regulated. If institutions do not get what they want, they will not invest.”
