ASIC today issued Class Order (08/506) Hong Kong collective investment schemes providing operators of collective investment schemes authorised by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) conditional relief from scheme registration and certain licensing, product disclosure and fundraising requirements under the Corporations Act.
CO 08/506 is part of ASIC’s implementation of the Declaration on Mutual Recognition of Cross-Border Offering of Collective Investment Schemes entered into between ASIC and the SFC on 7 July 2008. This agreement concerns the mutual recognition by ASIC and the SFC of schemes offered to retail investors on the basis of broad equivalence between the Australian and Hong Kong regulatory regimes.
SFC-authorised collective investment schemes and SFC-licensed managers seeking to rely on the relief must be primarily regulated by the SFC and not subject to material regulatory concessions by virtue of their regulation outside Hong Kong.
Hong Kong authorised CIS can be structured as either a unit trust or a mutual fund corporation. The Class Order has been drafted to take into account the differences in structure, in particular that a mutual fund corporation is a separate legal entity whereas a unit trust is not. Notwithstanding such differences, the relief provided under the Class Order is available to Hong Kong authorised unit trusts and mutual fund corporations.
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