Liability of Asset Managers (Introduction)

Abstract

Asset management, a distinctive sector within the financial services industry, centers on an agency relationship between a client and an individual manager or firm appointed to manage the client's investment portfolio. Additionally, in many jurisdictions asset managers are subject to a technically complex set of regulatory requirements, which differ across jurisdictions. This book is the only comparative analysis of the law of asset manager liability in the major European jurisdictions, the United States, and Canada, with chapters written by specialists from the relevant jurisdictions plus a comprehensive chapter covering the relevant European law, in particular the MiFID directive. The book's coverage is limited to relationships that pertain to individual portfolios of securities, as opposed to collective investment schemes such as mutual funds and UCITs. A central focus is how regulation interacts with civil liability, whether based on breaches of duties imposed by general law (such as breach of fiduciary duty and duties of care) or on breaches of duties imposed by regulation itself.

The Introduction, co-authored by the book's co-editors, situates the country-by-country materials within the broader context of questions about regulatory design and effectiveness. These include whether regulation and liability should be understood as substitutes for each other or as necessary complements; differences in the "style" of regulation; the role of industry-based self-regulation; and the impact of mandated disclosure of information by asset managers.