AIFMD II Implementation in Austria

On 22 January 2026, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance (Bundesministerium für Finanzen) published a ministerial draft (Ministerialentwurf) to implement AIFMD II by amending the Austrian Alternative Investment Fund Managers Act (Alternative Investmentfonds Manager-Gesetz – AIFMG). The draft introduces the necessary national legal framework to align Austrian law with AIFMD II, in particular strengthening liquidity management, introducing an EU-harmonised regime for loan-originating AIFs, and tightening delegation requirements. The new Austrian provisions are expected to enter into force by 16 April 2026, aligning with EU requirements, subject to change during the parliamentary procedure.

AIFMD II introduces an EU-wide loan-origination framework. Austria’s draft adopts this regime but adds national clarifications, particularly:

• Clarification regarding Article 15(4b) AIFMD II: in §13(4b) AIFMG, Austria deliberately diverges from the German-language version of AIFMD II. The draft clarifies that the provision refers to the competence of the authority under §23(3) AIFMG, thereby aligning the Austrian text with other language versions.
• Implementation of Article 15(4g) AIFMD II: §13(4g) AIFMG implements the Member State option by prohibiting AIFs from granting loans to consumers or providing consumer credit services in Austria. For the definition of “consumer”, the Austrian implementation cross-refers to §1(1)(2) KSchG.
• Depositary location rules (Article 21(5a) AIFMD II): §19(5)(1) AIFMG reflects the Member State option allowing AIFs to appoint a depositary established in another Member State. Austria does not exercise this option itself, but accommodates the possibility that other Member States do.
• Terminology under Article 50(5): in §61(7) AIFMG, Austria replaces the term “Antrag” (“application”) with “Ersuchen” (“request”) to align with the English-language wording of Article 50(5b), (5c), and (5f) and improve coherence within the German-language transposition.
• Adjustment of requirements for managers: the amendment to §6(2)(12) AIFMG removes earlier additional national requirements for managers because these become obsolete in light of the enhanced qualification requirements introduced by Directive (EU) 2024/927.
• Alignment of cross-references: §10(5) AIFMG is amended to align with Article 6(4) of the UCITS Directive as amended by Directive (EU) 2024/927. References to WAG 2018 replace references to MiFID II provisions, while references to Delegated Regulation 2017/565 are removed because those provisions are directly applicable.
• UCITS-related clarifications and notification procedures: Austria resolves translation inconsistencies by consistently using “Rückkauf” (repurchase) and “Rücknahme” (redemption) in §100 InvFG 2011. Original filings under §139(1) InvFG are now subject to the FMA’s regulatory power under §153(1), shifting procedural detail into secondary legislation.

AIFMD II leaves it to the discretion of Member States to decide whether AIFs should be prevented, for reasons of public interest, from granting loans to consumers. Austria exercises the Member State option under Article 15(4g) AIFMD II to prohibit AIFs from granting loans to consumers and from providing consumer credit services in Austria. Apart from this consumer-lending restriction, the ministerial draft does not introduce substantive requirements that go beyond the Directive. The Austrian implementation otherwise follows AIFMD II closely and does not gold-plate the new loan-origination regime.

The FMA has articulated supervisory expectations relevant to AIFMD II, specifically in connection with the new liquidity management tools introduced under the AIFMD II framework in its December 2025 edition of the monthly publication Reden wir über Aufsicht, titled “Liquiditätsmanagement für Investmentfonds”. Besides this, no additional guidance, circulars, Q&A, statements, or supervisory expectations have been issued.