From the DFSA:

The DFSA proposes to make significant enhancements to the DIFC’s Collective Investment Funds regime to better align it with international trends and practices, thereby making it more attractive to both fund managers and participants in the funds industry. The Funds Regime is mainly contained in the Collective Investment Law 2006 and the Collective Investment Rules module of the DFSA Rulebook. Other modules of the DFSA Rulebook are also relevant, for example, the IFR module, which contains the Rules relating to Islamic Funds and the FER module, which contains Rules relating to fees applicable to Funds.

In June 2009, the DFSA established the Funds Regime by a Market Practitioner Panel, which comprised members with industry-wide expertise relating to the managed funds industry. The remit of the Panel was to review the DFSA’s Funds Regime and present to the DFSA recommendations that would better promote the growth of the Funds industry in the DIFC, while remaining fully compliant with the relevant principles of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).

The Panel presented its Report to the DFSA on 30 September 2009. It contains wide-ranging recommendations arranged under 10 issues. While the Panel found our Funds Regime fit for purpose, these recommendations suggest significant enhancements to that regime, to make it more usable by fund managers and industry practitioners.

The DFSA published the Panel Report on 19 October 2009, seeking public comments on the Panel recommendations. The period for public comment closed on 4 December and we received 4 sets of comments. While most of those comments were strongly supportive of the Panel recommendations, there were some differing views as to the nature of improvements that could be made to the Funds Regime. We have taken into account those comments in formulating the proposals in this consultation paper.