Home / CY AIFM Law of 2013 / PART ΙΙΙ – OPERATING CONDITIONS FOR AIFMs / CHAPTER 1 - General Requirements / Section 14 - Remuneration. 

Remuneration.

14.-(1) AIFMs establish and apply remuneration policies and practices which-

(a) are consistent with and promote sound and effective risk management; and

(b) do no encourage risk-taking which is inconsistent with the risk profiles, rules or instruments of incorporation of the AIFs they manage; and

(c) comply with the provisions of paragraph (2); and

(d) apply to those categories of staff, including senior management, risk takers, control functions and any employees receiving total remuneration that takes them into the same remuneration bracket as senior management and those risk takers, whose professional activities have a material impact on the risk profiles of the AIFMs or of the AIFs they manage. (i)

(2) When establishing and applying the total remuneration policies, inclusive of salaries and discretionary pension benefits, AIFMs shall comply with the following principles in a way and to the extent that is appropriate to their size, internal organisation and the nature, scope and complexity of their activities:

(a) the remuneration policy is consistent with and promotes sound and effective risk management and does not encourage risk-taking which is inconsistent with the risk profiles, rules or instruments of incorporation of the AIFs they manage;

(b) the remuneration policy is in line with the business strategy, objectives, values and interests of the AIFM and the AIFs it manages or the investors of such AIFs, and includes measures to avoid conflicts of interest;

(c) the management body of the AIFM, in its supervisory function, adopts and periodically reviews the general principles of the remuneration policy and is responsible for its implementation;

(d) the implementation of the remuneration policy is, at least annually, subject to central and independent internal review for compliance with policies and procedures for remuneration adopted by the management body in its supervisory function;

(e) staff engaged in control functions are compensated in accordance with the achievement of the objectives linked to their functions, independent of the performance of the business areas they control;

(f) the remuneration of the senior officers in the risk management and compliance functions is directly overseen by the remuneration committee;

(g) where remuneration is performance related, the total amount of remuneration is based on a combination of the assessment of the performance of the individual and of the business unit or AIF concerned and of the overall results of the AIFM, and when assessing individual performance, financial as well as non-financial criteria are taken into account;

(h) the assessment of performance is set in a multi-year framework appropriate to the life-cycle of the AIFs managed by the AFM in order to ensure that the assessment process is based on longer term performance and that the actual payment of performance-based components of remuneration is spread over a period which takes account of the redemption policy of the AIFs it manages and their investment risks;

(i) guaranteed variable remuneration is exceptional, occurs only in the context of hiring new staff and is limited to the first year;

(j) fixed and variable components of total remuneration are appropriately balanced and the fixed component represents a sufficiently high proportion of the total remuneration to allow the operation of a fully flexible policy, on variable remuneration components, including the possibility to pay no variable remuneration component;

(k) payments related to the early termination of a contract reflect performance achieved over time and are designed in a way that does not reward failure;

(l) the measurement of performance used to calculate variable remuneration components or pools of variable remuneration components includes a comprehensive adjustment mechanism to integrate all relevant types of current and future risks;

(m) subject to the legal structure of the AIF and its rules or instruments of incorporation, a substantial portion, and in any event at least 50% of any variable remuneration consist of units or shares of the AIF concerned, or equivalent ownership interests, or share-linked instruments or equivalent non-cash instruments unless the management of AIFs accounts for less than 50% of the total portfolio managed by the AIFM, in which case the minimum of 50% does not apply; the instruments referred to in this sub-paragraph shall be subject to an appropriate retention policy designed to align incentives with the interests of the AIFM and the AIFs it manages and the investors of such AIFs; the Commission may, by Directive, place restrictions on the types and designs of those instruments or ban certain instruments as appropriate. This sub-paragraph (m) applies to both the portion of the variable remuneration component deferred in line with sub-paragraph (n) and the portion of the variable remuneration component not deferred;

(n) a substantial portion, and in any event at least 40% of the variable remuneration component, is deferred over a period which is appropriate in view of the life cycle and redemption policy of the AIF concerned and is correctly aligned with the nature of the risks of the AIF in question; the period referred to in this sub-paragraph shall be at least three to five years unless the life cycle of the AIF concerned is shorter; remuneration payable under deferral arrangements vests no faster than on a pro-rata basis; in the case of a variable remuneration component of a particularly high amount, at least 60% of the amount is deferred;

(o) the variable remuneration, including the deferred portion, is paid or vests only if it is sustainable according to the financial situation of the AIFM as a whole, and justified according to the performance of the business unit, the AIF and the individual concerned; the total variable remuneration shall generally be considerably contracted where subdued or negative financial performance of the AIFM or of the AIF concerned occurs, taking into account both current compensation and reductions in payouts of amounts previously earned, including through malus or clawback arrangements;

(p) the pension policy is in line with the business strategy, objectives, values and long-term interests of the AIFM and the AIFs it manages; if the employee leaves the AIFM before retirement, discretionary pension benefits shall be held by the AIFM for a period of 5 years in the form of instruments defined in paragraph (m); in the case of an employee reaching retirement, discretionary pension benefits shall be paid to the employee in the form of instruments defined in paragraph (m) subject to a 5 year retention period;

(q) staff are required to undertake not to use personal hedging strategies or remuneration and liability-related insurance to undermine the risk alignment effects embedded in their remuneration arrangements;

(r) variable remuneration is not paid through vehicles or methods that facilitate the avoidance of the requirements of this Law.

(3) The principles set out in subsection (2) shall apply to remuneration of any type paid by the AIFM, to any amount paid directly by the AIF itself, including carried interest, and to any transfer of units or shares of the AIF, made to the benefits of those categories of staff, including senior management, risk takers, control functions and any employee receiving total remuneration that takes them into the same remuneration bracket as senior management and risk takers, whose professional activities have a material impact on their risk profile or the risk profiles of the AIF that they manage.

(4) AIFMS that are significant in terms of their size or the size of the AIFs they manage, their internal organisation and the nature, the scope and the complexity of their activities shall establish a remuneration committee. The remuneration committee shall be constituted in a way that enable it to exercise competent and independent judgment on remuneration policies and practices and he incentives created for managing risk. The remuneration committee shall be responsible for the preparation of decisions regarding remuneration, including those which have implications for the risk and risk management of the AIFM or the AIF concerned and which are to be taken by the management body in its supervisory function. The remuneration committee shall be chaired by a member of the management body who does not perform any executive functions in the AIFM concerned. The members of the remuneration committee shall be members of the management body who do not perform any executive functions in the AIFM concerned.

(5) The Commission may, by directive, specify -

(a) the persons referred to in subsection (1); and

(b) the principles and rules of subsection (2), taking into account, the size of the AIFMs and the size of the AIFs they manage, their internal organisation and the nature, the scope and the complexity of their activities.

(i) 8(I) of 2015