Sector developments and company hires

FCA urged to address ‘regulatory redundancies’
The Managed Funds Association (MFA) has submitted a letter to the UK FCA, proposing improvements to the country’s regulatory framework for securitisations that would expand capital investment in the UK and optimise risk management on behalf of UK investors. The letter encourages the FCA to “address regulatory redundancies” and enhance compatibility with the rules governing other jurisdictions with thriving securitisation markets, such as the US.

The move is in anticipation of the repeal of the UK Securitisation Regulation in 3Q23 and subsequent consultation on the next iteration of the Sec Reg (SCI 12 December 2022). In its letter, the MFA encourages the FCA to set the scope of the consultation as widely as possible to maximise the ability to create a more agile regulatory framework. 

Notably, the letter emphasises that the general due diligence requirements under the Sec Reg are redundant and ultimately inhibit alternative investment fund managers’ (AIFMs) global investment strategies (SCI 14 June). MFA calls on the FCA to remove AIFMs from the scope of due diligence requirements altogether, as they are already subject to robust requirements under the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD).

The letter also notes how the current risk retention due diligence requirement prevents AIFMs from investing in many US securitisations, even though the US regulations have similar risk retention rules.

In other news…

TwentyFour founders to take advisory roles
TwentyFour Asset Management has announced that Rob Ford and Gary Kirk will be retiring from the partnership in September and transitioning to advisory roles at the firm. Having helped co-found the business in 2008, they have been in discussion with the other partners for some time about stepping back from their day-to-day roles.

During his time at the firm, Ford has co-managed a number of TwentyFour's ABS product lines - most recently, UK Mortgages Ltd, which was launched in 2016 and subsequently merged into TwentyFour Income Fund last year. The fund is now managed by the wider 10-person ABS team led by Doug Charleston and Aza Teeuwen.

Kirk has been co-managing the Multi Sector Bond investment team since it was launched in 2009, which has subsequently grown to five partners and 10 further investment professionals, adding Danny Zaid in 2021 and both Lee Crooks and Adel Ahmed in 2022.

Ford and Kirk will step down from TwentyFour's investment committee, which sets the top-down macro risk appetite for the firm, but the remaining 10 members have an average industry experience of 20 years and tenure at the firm of 12 years.