The Tribune

The Securities Commission of The Bahamas has announced the signing of its 28th agreement to ensure local fund managers have access to European markets.

The Bahamian capital markets regulator has signed its latest Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) under the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) with BaFin, the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority.

Robert V. Lotmore, the Securities Commission’s chairman, said: “Co-operation with other securities regulators remains a strategic priority for the Commission. It is a critical aspect of good securities regulation, particularly for international financial centres, and the Commission intends to continue to demonstrate regional leadership in this area.”

AIFMD MoUs allow Bahamas-based alternative investment fund managers to market, or perform fund management activities, in markets supervised by co‐signatory European securities regulators. They also allow European-based fund managers to manage or market Bahamas-domiciled investment funds in markets where the European regulator has entered into an AIFMD MoU with the Securities Commission.

“The Commission is very pleased to have entered the MOU with BaFin,” Christina Rolle, its executive director, said. “We continue to pursue an AIFMD MoU with Italy’s securities regulator, which is the last of the currently eligible European regulators under the AIFMD regime remaining to finalise negotiations with.”

The bi‐lateral co-operation agreement with BaFin came into force on February 15, 2019. Prior to entering the agreement, the Securities Commission had entered into AIFMD MOUs with counterpart securities regulatory authorities in the following jurisdictions:

Austria; Belgium; Bulgaria; Cyprus; Czech Republic; Denmark; Estonia; Finland; France; Greece; Hungary; Iceland; Ireland; Latvia; Liechtenstein; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Malta; Norway; Poland; Portugal; Romania; Slovak Republic; Spain; Sweden; The Netherlands; United Kingdom.