Published: 18.11.2022

An alternative investment fund manager is a joint stock company or a limited liability company, basic activity of which is management of alternative investment funds. The alternative investment fund manager shall operate in accordance with the Law on Alternative Investment Funds and their Managers, the Financial and capital market commission’s/Latvijas Banka's normative acts, EU Regulations, the Commercial Law and other regulatory enactments, and its articles of association.

An alternative investment fund manager can commence its activities after its registration within Latvijas Banka (the registered manager) or after the receipt of license for alternative investment fund management activities (the licensed manager).

EU manager and non-EU manager can commence its activities under provisions of Section IX or X of the Law.

Registered manager is a manager which either directly or indirectly, through a company with which the AIFM is linked by common management or control, or by a substantive direct or indirect holding, manage portfolios of AIFs whose assets under management in total do not exceed a threshold of 500 million euros when the portfolios of AIFs consist of AIFs that are unleveraged and have no redemption rights exercisable during a period of 5 years following the date of initial investment in each AIF.

In order to obtain a registration, the alternative investment fund manager submits to Latvijas Banka an application for receipt of a registration. The application shall be accompanied by the information and documents referred to in Article 8 of the Law on Alternative Investment Funds and their Managers.

The capital of registered manager shall at no time fall below 15 000 euros.

Latvijas Banka shall take a decision to issue a registration within a month after the receipt of all the documents specified in the Law on Alternative Investment Funds and their Manager for taking the decision, prepared and formulated in compliance with the requirements prescribed by regulatory enactments.

Licensed manager is a manager that manage portfolios of AIFs whose assets under management exceeds the criteria set for the registered manager.

In order to obtain a license, the alternative investment fund manager submits to Latvijas Banka an application for receipt of a registration. The application shall be accompanied by the information and documents referred to in Article 10 of the Law on Alternative Investment Funds and their Managers.

The minimum initial capital of a manager which is an internally managed shall be 300 000 euros. The minimum initial capital of an external manager shall be 125 000 euros.

Latvijas Banka shall take a decision to issue a license within a three-month period after the receipt of all the documents specified in the Law on Alternative Investment Funds and their Manager for taking the decision, prepared and formulated in compliance with the requirements prescribed by regulatory enactments.

Cross-border activities

The EU-manager can market EU funds in Latvia according to Article 32 of the AIFM Directive (Article 68 of Law on Alternative Investment Funds and their Managers).

As to Article 32 of Directive, respectively Article 68 of the Law the manager shall submit a notification in English to the competent authorities of its home Member State in respect of each EU AIF that it intends to market in Latvia.

The notification includes:
1. a program of operations identifying the AIFs the AIFM intends to market (shall be submitted in Latvia or language used in international finance, i.e.- in English);
2. information on where the AIFs are established (shall be submitted in Latvia or language used in international finance, i.e.- in English);
3. the AIF instruments of incorporation (foundation document) (shall be submitted in Latvia or language used in international finance, i.e.- in English);
4. the rules of fund activities (operation) (shall be submitted in Latvia or language used in international finance, i.e.- in English);
5. identification of the depositary of the AIF (shall be submitted in Latvia or language used in international finance, i.e.- in English);
6. information on where the master AIF is established if the AIF is a feeder AIF (shall be submitted in Latvia or language used in international finance, i.e.- in English);
7. latest annual report or consolidated annual report if prepared, the latest net asset value of the AIF or the latest market price of the unit or share of the AIF (shall be submitted in Latvia or language used in international finance, i.e.- in English);
8. procedure for the ensuring the marketing of AIFs only to professional investors (shall be submitted in Latvia or language used in international finance, i.e.- in English).
9. a statement by the competent authority of the home Member State of the AIFM confirming that the AIFM concerned is authorised to manage AIFs with a particular investment strategy (shall be submitted in English).

Technical information

The technical limitation of the mail-box used:

  • Size per message (in MB): 10
  • File type accepted (doc, docx, pdf, zip) all types of docs and archives
  • Any naming convention to be used :
    1) at message level – preferably – essence of message
    2) per file type attached: preferably- short info on type of document (plan, rule) and info on AIF and AIFM (i.e. AnRep2013_ RTIF_AIFM)

Supervisory fees

According to Article 82 of the Law for the supervision of AIF marketing in Latvia the manager shall pay to Latvijas Banka single payment in amount of 1209 euros for each fund marketed in Latvia.

The payment shall be made to the following account:

Latvijas Banka

Konts LV35 LACB 0EUR 1750 5010 0

BIC: LACBLV2X

Besides, according to Article 41 of the Law licensed EU manager can market units or shares of EU fund it manages also to such non-professional investor if this investor submits a written statement that he/she can make and independent decision on investing in the fund and is aware of all risks, including the risk of total or partial loss derived from the investment or commitment, and the minimum amount of investment is 100 000 euro.

In case EU manager intends to market units or shares of EU fund it manages and the fund rules or instruments of incorporation provides for use of leverage in the amount of 50 per cent of net asset value of the fund, the shares or units of such fund can be also marketed to the investor that submits a written statement that he/she can make and independent decision on investing in the fund and is aware of all risks, including the risk of total or partial loss derived from the investment or commitment. In this case the information on arrangements made for the marketing of AIFs to the aforementioned investors shall be provided Latvijas Banka as well.