The conditions and circumstances under which the disclosure of information about the Investors/Unit-holders of a Cyprus Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) is obligatory.
The Cyprus Security and Exchange Commission (CySEC) is the regulatory authority responsible under the Law for the licensing and supervision of Investment Funds for both Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) and Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) as well as any other type of Investment Fund. The commencement of operations of Investment Funds requires authorisation from CySEC. The timeframe for the licensing process is approximately three to four months from the date of the submission of the application.
In the event the Fund Manager has appointed a Fund Administrator, the Administrator is usually responsible for the maintenance of the registry of the Unit-holders and all references to such registry shall include the Fund Administrator.
Moreover, as a form of Due Diligence of the Unit-holders the Manager is obliged to hold the identification documents for its Unit-holders. If the Depositary requests to have access in the unit-holders registry then the AIF Manager shall ensure so.
Additionally, the AIFM (Alternative Investment Fund Manager), the Depositary, the Administrator and any other related to the fund person, is obliged upon request of the CySeC, to provide access to the unit-holders’ registry and or any other information necessary to complete an inspection from CySeC.
Also, in case of a liquidation, the Manager is obliged to communicate with all the Unit-holders and such communication shall be notified to CySeC therefore providing indirect access to the registry of the Unit-holders to CySeC.
In addition, on opening of a Bank Account of the Fund and on every major transaction it is customary for the Bank to request the provision of the unit-holder register and the identification of the Beneficial Owner of all Unit-holders holding units above 25% of the total units of the fund.
Furthermore, the same request as above shall be made by other professionals, including the Depositary, the Fund Administrator, the Auditor and the Lawyer of the fund for the purposes of AML (Anti Money Laundering) Compliance Procedure.
What’s more, on the occasion of reporting a suspicious transaction to MOKAS (Unit For Combating Money Laundering) or otherwise an inspection by MOKAS, the AIF Manager is required to provide to MOKAS any information related to the AIF and may gain access to the Unit-holders’ registry as well.
Lastly, the AIF Manager shall provide data on investment fund shares/units to the Central Bank of Cyprus, used exclusively for statistical purposes. The law ensures the confidentiality of the submitted data which are published only in aggregated form without revealing the identity of the parties involved.
In conclusion, it is necessary to take into account that all of the above information derives from the Cyprus Law which applies within the Republic of Cyprus.
