ICMA AMIC publishes position paper on ESMA's letter on AIFMD review
12 October 2020 ICMA's Asset Management and Investors Council published a series of first views on the review of AIFMD following ESMA's letter and ahead of the upcoming EC consultation. AMIC argues that the current framework, which was continuously enhanced over the years has proven to be fit for purpose in light of the crisis and that re-writing AIFMD and the UCITS directive on key aspects (such as delegation, leverage/liquidity, reporting) as suggested by ESMA would be a major distraction for policy makers, supervisors and asset managers at a time when collective energy should be devoted to the post-COVID 19 recovery, the Sustainable Finance Action Plan and the Capital Markets Union. AMIC believes a lot of the points raised in ESMA's letter can be dealt with by the European authority and NCAs by making use of their existing and recently reinforced powers (i.e. Guidelines, Q&As, Common Supervisory Action) or via targeted level 2 measures and calls the EC, to focus on vehicles which, with changes, could foster growth in European capital markets (e.g. ELTIF) rather than those which have been successful in ensuring EU’s competitiveness and attractiveness.