23/11/2011 Author: Will Wainewright

Alfi notebook - Day two

Nearly 500 professionals from the hedge fund, private equity and real estate sectors gathered in Luxembourg today for the final day of Alfi’s alternatives conference. HFMWeek reporter Will Wainewright was among the delegates and provides a snapshot of the day’s events.

-       Day two started with a speech from the biggest name on the conference bill, Luc Frieden, Luxembourg’s minister of finance. He delivered a hard-hitting address outlining his thoughts on the eurozone, sparing little sympathy for Greece, before setting out the government’s commitment to Luxembourg as a financial services hub. “In the case of Greece, we know what has to be done,” he told delegates. “But Greece also has to realise that solidarity is not a one-way route, where some countries just give money to another country.” It certainly cut through the early-morning fog that cloaked the conference venue and, after the night before, some of the delegates’ heads.

-       Though his Eurozone verdicts were interesting, Frieden’s speech seemed designed to reassure delegates of the domicile’s enduring stability and its status as a safe place to operate a hedge fund. “Banks and funds here have overcome the [financial] crisis quite well,” he said. “In the current difficult time, we will make sure that all financial institutions will be on a safe footing.”

-       Just before raising the topic of Luxembourg’s financial virtues, a key theme from yesterday, he raised another – AIFMD. He spoke of the opportunities it presented the domicile through the reassurance a regulated environment gave investors. It was a good thing he left straight after his speech as a panel discussion later in the morning on the directive’s implementation was heavy on the risks accompanying the directive. Jiri Krol, Aima’s director of government and regulatory affairs, said the issue of depository liability had the potential to “make or break” the directive’s success.

-       Depository provisions, along with third country and delegation rules, formed the three discussion topics during the debate as panellists queued up to highlight areas where Esma’s guidance released last week – and discussed at length yesterday – came up short. At lunch HFMWeek heard from some delegates that they felt the AIFMD had been over-discussed during the conference, one accountant saying that it meant other regulatory threats posed by legislation including Solvency II were ignored.

-       The content tailed off in the afternoon with a discussion on cross-border distribution and a couple of research presentations. Delegates were relieved, however, to see the fog from earlier lift, meaning their flights home would not be delayed. Organisers Alfi, keen to pull in more business to Luxembourg’s growing fund industry, will hope they’ll be back soon.