Setting up in Malta involves three separate decisions: whether the manager holds its own AIFM authorisation or appoints a host AIFM that already has one, whether the fund is licensed or notified into the MFSA's List of Notified AIFs, and whether it is distributed under the AIFMD passport or national private-placement rules. Only the middle decision is specific to Malta, and notification removes a product-authorisation step without reducing any of the obligations that sit on the manager.
Malta is usually presented to fund promoters as a single decision — whether to “go to Malta” — when it is really three, taken in order, each with its own timetable and its own point of no return. Confusing them is why promoters arrive expecting a notification to be a licence, or a licence to be a passport.
Three decisions, taken in order
- How is the manager authorised? Your own AIFM authorisation, or a host AIFM that already has one.
- How does the fund reach the market? A product licence, or notification into the MFSA's list.
- How is it distributed? The AIFMD passport to professional investors, or national private-placement rules country by country.
Only the second is specific to Malta. The first and third are EU-level questions that Malta implements — which is worth remembering when a service provider presents the whole package as a jurisdictional advantage.
The manager: what “full-scope” buys
General rule An authorised AIFM is subject to requirements on capital, governance, risk management, valuation, delegation and reporting, must appoint a depositary for each fund it manages, and may market EU AIFs to professional investors across the Union under the AIFMD passportEUR-Lex. That last clause is the whole point: a full authorisation is a distribution asset, not just a compliance burden.
The framework was revised by Directive (EU) 2024/927 — AIFMD II — applying from 16 April 2026, with tighter delegation and substance requirements and a harmonised regime for loan-originating fundsEUR-Lex, and the consolidated text now in force is the version to work fromEUR-Lex. Substance is the practical constraint most first-time applicants underestimate: an authorisation follows people and decision-making that are genuinely in the jurisdiction, not a registered address.
Malta Most promoters below a certain size do not seek their own authorisation. They appoint a host AIFM that already holds one. That converts a licensing project into a commercial negotiation — faster, but with a dependency described below.
The fund: licence or notification
Here is where Malta genuinely differs. Notified AIFs are a category of collective investment scheme exempt from licensing under the Investment Services Act, subject to inclusion in the List of Notified AIFs maintained by the MFSAMFSA. The regulator is not authorising the product; it is recording it, having satisfied itself that the conditions are met.
Those conditions are specific, and three of them decide most cases. A NAIF must be promoted to professional and/or qualifying investors only, must be managed by a full-scope AIFM authorised under AIFMD, and the AIFM must assume responsibility for that NAIFMFSA. The exclusions matter just as much: the notification process is not available to self-managed collective investment schemes, to schemes not marketed exclusively to professional or qualifying investors, or to schemes engaging in loan origination, unless established under the EuVECA or EuSEF RegulationsMFSA.
Read that list against your plan before anything else. A promoter intending to manage the fund themselves, or to reach retail investors, or to originate loans, has already left the regime — and it is better to discover that on the first page than after the documents are drafted.
The notification timetable, precisely
Two deadlines govern the process, and they run in opposite directions: one is a limit on you, the other on the regulator.
| Step | Timing | Consequence |
|---|---|---|
| Governing body resolution | Starts the clock | The notification must follow within a fixed window |
| Filing the notification pack | Within 30 calendar days of that resolution, and before the effective date of the prospectusMFSA | Miss it and the notification is invalid; a new one must be submittedMFSA |
| Inclusion in the List | Within 10 working days of filing a duly completed notification pack, including the required assessment and the notification feeMFSA | Only then may the prospectus be dated |
The ten working days are the figure everyone quotes, and they are real — but they run from a duly completed pack. The elapsed time from decision to market is dominated by preparing that pack and by the AIFM's own due diligence on the strategy, not by the regulator's ten days. Any timeline that quotes the ten days as the project duration is quoting the last mile as if it were the journey.
Who may actually invest
NAIFs may be marketed only to professional investors — those treated as professional clients, or who may on request be treated as such, within the meaning of Annex II to MiFID — and to qualifying investors, being investors who invest a minimum of EUR 100,000 or currency equivalent in the NAIF, which may not be reduced below that amount by partial redemption, and who declare in writing that they are aware of the risksMFSA. The professional-client criteria themselves sit in MiFID II Annex IIEUR-Lex.
Two practical consequences that are routinely missed. The EUR 100,000 is a floor that persists: a partial redemption cannot take a qualifying investor below it. And the written declaration is a condition of eligibility, not a formality to be collected later.
Distribution: passport or private placement
General rule Being on the list gets the fund into existence. It does not get the fund into another country. Marketing an EU AIF to professional investors in other member states runs through the AIFMD passport, which belongs to the authorised managerEUR-Lex. If you are using a host AIFM, the passport is theirs and the notification is made by them, on their appetite and their timetable.
Where the passport is unavailable — a sub-threshold registered manager, or a target investor base that is not professional — distribution falls back on national private-placement regimes, which differ by member state, exist in some and not others, and change. Country-by-country is not a detail to resolve after launch; it determines whether the fund can raise where you intend to raise.
What notification does not change
- It does not reduce the AIFM's obligations. Depositary, valuation, risk management and reporting continue to apply to the manager.
- It does not make the MFSA responsible for the fund. The AIFM assumes that responsibilityMFSA, which is precisely why a host AIFM can and will decline strategies it is not prepared to stand behind.
- It does not create a distribution right. That is the passport, and the passport is the manager's.
- It does not open the fund to retail investors. The eligibility floor is a condition of the regime itself.
Verify the manager yourself
Framont example Framont & Partners Management Ltd is an AIFM authorised by the MFSA and acts as host AIFM and portfolio manager for funds and instruments on this platform, so it has a commercial interest in the route this article describes. Do not take the authorisation from this page. An entity's authorisation, its exact registered name and its current status can be confirmed by searching the MFSA Financial Services RegisterMFSA, which is the record that stays current if the position changes. Ask any prospective host AIFM for the exact registered name it holds its licence under, then look it up before signing anything.