A California-headquartered alternative investment house has put a fund onto a European platform to be able to tap into EU markets now operating under the AIFMD regulatory regime.

DMS Offshore Investment Services, which says it is the world's largest fund governance firm, and San Francisco-headquartered White Oak Global Advisors, have launched an alternative investment fund hosted on DMS’s Ireland-based platform.

White Oak has engaged the DMS AIF platform, which is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland as an alternative investment fund manager in Ireland , and by the CSSF in Luxembourg , to provide access for European investors, DMS and White Oak said in a statement today.

The Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive came into force in 2013, requiring businesses that want to sell hedge fund, private equity and other such investments to European Union investors to adhere to certain controls and standards of disclosure. The directive was enacted in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis because of concerns that weak controls in sectors such as hedge funds had played a part in the market turmoil.

DMS said that since the new rules entered force, it has developed a proprietary alternative investment fund platform for investment managers, such as those operating in the US.

"AIFMD has presented a significant challenge for US investment managers doing business in Europe and by engaging a local partner, fund managers can focus on their core competencies of asset management," Derek Delaney , managing director of DMS Europe, said.

Stuart Fross , partner at Foley & Lardner, legal advisors for White Oak , said that while the EU rules were a challenge to US managers, the European market for alternative investments is too large to ignore.

"With an outsourced AIFM, the advantage is that all the heavy lifting has now been done and this now allows US managers to get on with managing money across the EU," Fross said.

DMS Offshore Investment Services has more than 225 professionals representing leading investment funds with assets under management exceeding $330 billion. White Oak, meanwhile, was founded in 2007 and has almost $2 billion of capital. Besides its San Francisco HQ, it has offices in Denver, Dallas and New York.