However, any great shift East could prove detrimental to established European jurisdictions. European finance centres are under pressure to improve their propositions as stringent European regulation pushes asset managers to take their funds to jurisdictions with less onerous demands.

At an asset management forum organised in Malta by Deloitte, Ganado Associates and Alter Domus, Professor Joseph Bannister, chairman of the Malta Financial Services Authority, said asset managers are under pressure to get results — and this includes finding a way to manage the heavy regulations they are subject to.

The distribution landscape is changing, he explained, and as a result Europe is going to suffer. According to Prof. Bannister, managers will remain in Europe but prefer setting up funds in other jurisdictions where regulations are less burdensome. “There are too many demands on funds in Europe,” he said, some of which are arguably unreasonable — one such example being the stress tests performed on a fund from the first day of operations and before it reaches any kind of mass in terms of assets.

Prof. Bannister believes fund jurisdictions in Asia like Singapore, Hong Kong and even emerging jurisdictions like China, Vietnam or Thailand, may be the beneficiaries of Europe’s loss.

While such a development would prove testing for established jurisdictions like Luxembourg and Dublin, it would be even more so for smaller countries like Malta and the Channel Islands. However, it could also be considered an opportunity. Prof. Bannister believes Malta should focus on attracting asset managers, rather than funds, to open operations.

But ultimately, European financial centres should work with Asian countries rather than just consider them competitors. In fact, regulators from Europe and Asia Pacific’s regulatory bodies met in Singapore last week at an inaugural forum on financial regulation between the EU authorities and members of the Iosco Asia Pacific Regional Committee (APRC).

Ugo Bassi, Director of Financial Markets at DG FISMA of the European Commission, said: “The Asia-Pacific region is an important partner of the EU. Improving mutual understanding between market regulators can only benefit our economies, and enrich our contribution to the definition and enforcement of global regulatory standards. Our hope is that the forum will grow into a platform for joint reflection and dialogue.”

In the opening speech of the Singapore forum, Ong Chong Tee, Deputy Managing Director, Monetary Authority of Singapore, which hosted the event, said: “The impetus for this forum is a recognition that the financial markets of Europe and Asia are increasingly inter-connected. One measure, for example, is the total portfolio assets held by investors from the largest five EU economies, in the Asia and Pacific region. This has grown from around US$240 billion in December 2001 to over US$820 billion in December 2015 (according to IMF statistics). And this growth has been positive each year except for a decline during the last global financial crisis. In the same period, total portfolio investment assets held by investors from the Asia and Pacific region in these same European markets have grown from US$420 billion to over US$930 billion.

“Therefore, developments in each of our jurisdictions and regions can have a significant spill-over impact on the other. Financial regulators form one important stakeholder group and platforms for dialogue and sharing such as in this forum will be helpful in promoting greater mutual understanding and cooperation.” займ онлайн на карту без отказа онлайн займ на киви без паспортакак взять займ в вебманикиви займ без процентов