In this issue of the Finance Dublin Funds Monitor the opportunities for growth that present themselves for Ireland’s funds industry for 2024 are examined including the soon to be implemented update of the European Long Term Investment Fund (ELTIF) regime, coined ELTIF 2.0.

The revamp will allow for ‘more effective fund of fund strategies, faster deployment of capital and for reinvestment of excess cash into a broader range of funds to mitigate cash drag’ writes Northern Trust’s Meliosa O’Caoimh. She says Northern Trust ‘are seeing increasing interest from our client base to offer ELTIF 2.0 structures in 2024’.

Cian Higgins, Head of Quantitative Solutions at Mazars, welcomes the removal of the minimum investment barrier as it opens the door for a wider array of ‘real’ retail investors to gain access to new asset classes.

The incoming IAF/SEAR is considered, with the broad Impact welcomed by Lisa Kealy, EMEIA ETF Leader of EY. Gerry Brady, a funds board director, and former CEO of leading funds administration organisations in Ireland provides an overall assessment, making the point that many elements of the IAF already exist in existing executive and board obligations, and that on balance it will have a positive impact on the jurisdiction’s standing.

The proposals to update AIFMD also feature with the changes around leverage limits on loan origination funds welcomed by Brady, who says: ‘The current constraints for loan origination funds, particularly in terms of leverage limits, which are significantly more penal than the leverage limits followed in practice by the most conservative banks, are to the detriment of this industry...The changes outlined in the proposed update to AIFMD are to be welcomed.’ EY’s Fergus McNally says the CBI’s plans to align Ireland’s regime with the proposed AIFMD changes ‘would level the playing field for the burgeoning private credit space in Ireland, and we would expect to result in growth of these funds in Ireland.’ Also: improving the investment fund investor experience; the factors driving service provider switches; the evolution of the Custodian; SFDR and potential changes to Europe’s settlement cycle in light of the US moving to T+1.