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Funds
Experienced Investor Funds
By James Lasry, GFIA
The Experienced Investor Fund (EIF) regime is Gibraltar’s flagship fund product. It has proven to be an extremely versatile way of setting up a fund that is fully regulated and yet may be established quickly and without having to wait for regulatory approval
Authorisation and regulatory requirements One of the key points of the EIF is the authorisation process, which may be via a notification or prior approval procedure. Under the notification procedure, there is no regulatory pre-approval necessary for launch. It is sufficient for the fund to be incorporated, appoint its service providers, produce its offering document and hold a board meeting to launch itself as a fund. Within 10 days of launch, the EIF must notify the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC) of the
launch and provide them with a copy of the offering document, the constitution documents, a legal opinion from senior Gibraltar counsel stating that the fund was established in accordance with the Financial Services (Experienced Investor Funds) Regulations 2020 (the EIF Regulations) and other relevant legislation, a form signed by the administrator and the registration fee. This is very significant as it means that effectively there is no regulatory downtime and the fund may be launched as quickly as necessary. Furthermore, there is regulatory certainty. If there are comments or questions from the regulator, those can be addressed while the fund continues trading.
An open ended EIF must generally have a depositary. The fund may also appoint brokers to assist with their trading activity. Neither the depositary nor the brokers need be in Gibraltar. EIFs must appoint a fund administrator that is licensed in Gibraltar or
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