The National Council of Monaco – the Monegasque Parliament – has passed a law on 29 November 2016, aiming to regulate the activity of multi-family offices in the Principality.
Amendments to the draft law put forward by the Monegasque government, allowing banks and asset managers to establish MFOs in the Principality and the ability given to MFOs to manage portfolios, were finally removed to avoid possible conflicts of interest.
Monegasque MFOs will be categorised in one of two ways: some will only focus on administration but will not be allowed to process financial transactions, while those in the second category will be able to transmit financial orders and provide financial advice to their clients.
The second type of MFOs will need both authorisation from Monegasque regulator the Commission de Contrôle des Activités Financières (CCAF) and the Monegasque government, as well as starting capital of €300,000.
Speaking to InvestmentEurope, Thierry Crovetto, the rapporteur of the law on MFOs and CEO/independent fund analyst at TC Stratégie Financière, says : “The law will spur foreign residents of Monaco to favour local MFOs rather than those of their countries of origin.
“It is estimated only 10% of the assets of Monaco’s foreign residents are currently deposited in banks established in the Principality. There is a huge potential to explore here. A few legal safeguards have been enshrined in the text. The remuneration will be that pertaining to clients only. In addition, banks and asset managers cannot be major shareholders of MFOs that will establish themselves in the Principality. We do not want to see asset managers selling their products through the setup of MFOs in Monaco,” Crovetto adds.
More to read about Monaco’s law on multi-family offices in the forthcoming December 2016/January 2017 issue of InvestmentEurope.