Malta has been emerging for some time as a growing player in the international financial services arena, with a particular strength in relation to funds. This has led to many of the long-standing trust companies headquartered elsewhere establishing a presence in the Island, although at present most of these are relatively small scale. Active Group, the Guernsey head-quartered compliance specialists, are seeking to benefit from this rash of new service providers in Malta, by offering them an out-sourced solution to the compliance, risk management and anti-money laundering implementation procedures which apply in that jurisdiction, through the establishment of its own new business, called Active Malta.
Active's identification of Malta as an attractive business target is likely to be a shrewd move, as it will assist the many new trust companies there to minimise compliance costs at a time when the businesses are small and cost sensitive.
A global survey on the future of fund domiciliation and servicing carried out by International Fund Investment Global (IFI) with 75 fund managers and 25 major institutional investors around the world recently noted that Malta is now the first choice of domicile in the Mediterranean and that its fund industry is growing at a very rapid pace, with a record number fund registrations during 2011.
The main reason for Malta's success appears to be the preference by institutional investors to allocate investments to onshore EU funds. The survey indicates that Ireland and Malta are more popular for hedge fund managers whilst Luxembourg is preferred for private equity fund structures.
As at June 2011, Malta had 519 registered investment funds (including sub-funds).
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