This should be interesting https://www.ft.com/content/346e4895-5054-46cb-9d39-e2b909810256

Spoiler alert: They do not

I mean, independent directors on real company boards struggle to be effective. Regulators are asking an awful lot out of independent fund directors

Like, if you think an independent director would ever say

“Neil, not sure about all these thinly traded companies in the portfolio. Are you sure that, even though your following the letter of the law, you’ve not pushed the envelope”

Then you’re nuts

This friction is only going to increase. Regulators are increasingly looking for “who’s responsible fo X”, be it a board director or employee at a Man Co.

When the fact is, funds aren’t real companies and all the actual decisions rest with the asset manager

This is why ESMA’s push for stricter UCITS delegation rules is so disruptive. There’s no reason, beyond politics, for asset management functions to be located in the EU, let alone the UCITS fund domicile.

All you end up doing is creating paper tiger positions

Which means when something goes wrong, you basically end up at the top of this thread.

Anyhoo, that’s enough for now. Thanks for reading and here’s a ‘Garbage Pail Kids’ gif