Audited Financial Statements and Filing FAR Form 4.0 (2020-12-11)

Summary

This is a CIMA general industry notice announcing the release of an updated Fund Annual Return (FAR) Form, version 4.0 (FAR-016-22-04), which replaces the previous FAR Form 3.0 (released in 2016). The new form and its accompanying Completion Guide reflect additional data and reporting requirements introduced by the Mutual Funds (Annual Returns) (Amendment) Regulations, 2020. The notice sets out transitional rules for which version of the form funds must use depending on their financial year-end, and grants a one-off filing extension for funds with a 30 June 2020 year-end.

• Year-end before 30 June 2020: Funds may continue to submit the older FAR Form 3.0, but this will only be accepted through the REEFS platform until 31 March 2021, after which all filings must use FAR Form 4.0.
• Year-end 30 June 2020 or later: Funds must use FAR Form 4.0 for their audited financial statements and annual return filing.

As a transitional accommodation, CIMA is granting funds with a 30 June 2020 financial year end a three-month extension, moving their filing deadline for audited financial statements and FAR Form 4.0 to 30 March 2021. This extension carries no additional fee, though all other applicable regulatory filing fees remain payable as normal.

Key obligations

• Funds with a financial year end of 30 June 2020 or later must complete and submit FAR Form 4.0 (rather than FAR Form 3.0) for their annual return filing.
• Funds with a financial year end prior to 30 June 2020 that have not yet filed may continue to use FAR Form 3.0, but must switch to submitting via FAR Form 4.0 on REEFS after 31 March 2021, since REEFS will cease accepting FAR Form 3.0 from that date.
• Funds with a financial year end of 30 June 2020 must file their audited financial statements and FAR Form 4.0 by the extended deadline of 30 March 2021.
• All other applicable regulatory filing fees remain payable notwithstanding the fee-free extension.

Applies to

mutual funds, regulated funds filing FAR annual returns with CIMA

Deadlines

• 31 March 2021: REEFS will no longer accept FAR Form 3.0; all funds must thereafter submit FAR Form 4.0.
• 30 March 2021: Extended deadline for funds with a financial year end of 30 June 2020 to file audited financial statements and FAR Form 4.0.