The Irish Collective Asset-management Vehicle (ICAV) is a new corporate fund conceived specifically with the needs of investment funds in mind. It is expected to be an enhancement over the variable capital investment company (VCC), which is the current structure of choice for funds domiciled in Ireland. As this is a standalone corporate structure, with its own legislative code, a fund established as an ICAV will not be impacted by amendments to certain pieces of European and domestic company legislations that are targeted at regular trading companies rather than investment funds. This new ICAV fund will sit alongside the existing VCC, and there will be no changes to existing corporate fund structures unless desired.

The Irish Funds Industry Association (IFIA) have stated that 100 new funds are due to be launched under the ICAV bill, several of these funds have more than €10bn in assets that are ready to be deployed. The process for converting existing structures to the ICAV has been streamlined to allow for a smooth transition. Its introduction demonstrates Ireland’s pro-active and pragmatic approach in meeting the evolving needs of fund promoters. The ICAV will provide an additional option for promoters complementing Ireland’s existing fund range, and we expect that it will become the vehicle of choice for AIFs in Europe.