Enhancement of Fee Notification (2017-10-17)

Summary

This is a general industry notice from CIMA, published 17 October 2017, describing internal administrative improvements to two of its processes rather than announcing any new rule or legal requirement.

• FAR filing fee notification: Once a fund's Annual Financial Statements and Fund Annual Return (FAR) are successfully filed through CIMA's EReporting system, the existing $300 FAR filing fee (set under the Mutual Funds (Annual Returns) (Amendment) Regulations, 2012) becomes due. CIMA has enhanced its notification process so that a filing confirmation and fee-due notice is now sent to the auditor who made the filing, the fund's current directors, its registered office, and the service provider responsible for paying fees.
• REEFS rollout: The notice describes the phased rollout of CIMA's Regulatory Enhanced Electronic Forms Submission (REEFS) system, at the time accepting filings for the Fiduciary and Insurance Divisions, with plans to eventually cover electronic submission of new applications and regulatory filings for all divisions, plus features allowing subscribers to view outstanding/upcoming fees and pay them online via escrow accounts. Full REEFS implementation was anticipated by mid-2017.

The notice does not create new substantive obligations for regulated entities beyond the pre-existing FAR fee requirement; it is primarily informational, describing operational and administrative enhancements to CIMA's systems and notification practices.

Key obligations

• The FAR filing fee of $300 becomes due once the Annual Financial Statements and FAR are successfully submitted via CIMA's EReporting system (pre-existing requirement under the Mutual Funds (Annual Returns) (Amendment) Regulations, 2012, reiterated here).

Applies to

mutual funds, auditors, fund directors, registered offices, service providers responsible for paying fees, fiduciary licensees, insurance licensees