With just one week to go it seems that many asset managers are still not ready to be authorisated under the Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) directive, according to two surveys carried out at the end of June and released this week.

The deadline for authorisation under the directive is July 22.

However, almost half (47%) of managers had not yet filed for the directive at all, according to a survey of 56 alternative fund managers by Kepler Partners and sponsored by Alceda.

The results also showed that 32% of managers were dawdling, with 19% still planning to submit an application before the deadline and 13% unsure about their intentions.

“What is clear from this survey is that there is still an element of wait and see about the AIFM directive, but we feel that the real winners of the future will be those alternative managers that readily embrace EU regulation, be it under Ucits or AIFM directive,” said Michael Sanders, CEO and chairman of the board of Alceda.

While the survey found that most European managers were better prepared, managers in the rest of the world appeared "blindfolded".

Some 8% of repondants were planning to use third-party service providers, 4% said they would use a private placement route and 17% were happy to stick to Ucits, avoiding the directive altogether.

“We found that alternative asset managers headquartered outside Europe are potentially sleepwalking into the unknown despite the potential impact on their business,” said Georg Reutter, partner at Kepler Partners.

Firms are struggling to adapt even within Europe, said Jean Devambez, BNP Paribas Securities Services' head of solutions for asset and fund services.

"Some locations in Europe have the advantage of a strong history of depositary banking for Ucits and other non-AIFs. Others are certainly catching up but the effort to prepare all stakeholders in these locations is necessarily greater.

"In some locations, Belgium and Italy for example, the directive was transposed only recently, leaving less time for the industry to adapt."

A survey by Confluence found that a third (34%) of fund managers affected by the AIFM directive's transparency reporting requirements were unprepared to meet the July 22 deadline, and just 16% said they were very prepared.

The survey, which included 116 responses from asset managers and fund administration service providers, found that 28% of respondents believed AIFMs were still undecided as how to meet the transparency rules. Some managers planned to use in-house reporting solutions, while 22% expected to use an external solution.

“The Confluence survey highlights the lack of readiness within the industry,” said Melvin Jayawardana, Confluence’s European markets manager.

“European asset managers and fund administrators face big challenges getting up to speed on the full ramifications of the directive and the scope of work it will require of their back-office operations.”

Devambez was more optimistic but suggested that unprepared investors could face delays.

"The alternative funds industry will not grind to a halt on July 22," he said. " AIFs will not be able to market any fund that has been set up in the past year and does not yet have a licence. The funds can be 'live' and managers can accept unsolicited enquiries, but cannot actively promote them."

Looking forward, the greatest threat the AIFM directive posed to business was costs of using depositary banks, remuneration and the end of private placement, which 30% of respondents said were their most serious concerns in the Alceda survey.

On a more positive note, more than 40% of respondents said they believed in the benefits of a EU-wide distribution passport and increased investor confidence under the AIFM directive, in particular the opportunity to extend both the range and the distribution of their products across Europe.

There was also a perception that more offshore funds would move onshore.

“Encouragingly the majority of managers don’t think that the AIFM directive will impact their strategy nor that it will negatively impact the continued growth of alternative Ucits funds,” added Reutter.

The Confluence survey found the most pressing concern was regulatory burden while reporting to regulators was the biggest challenge, as cited by a third of respondents.