New REEFS FAR Form (2017-10-17)

Summary

This is a CIMA general industry notice dated 17 October 2017 announcing the availability of a new Fund Annual Return (FAR) Form in Excel format, together with a Completion Guide, for use in CIMA's REEFS online reporting portal. It sets out which version of the FAR Form regulated funds must use depending on their financial year-end date, and clarifies new requirements around sub-fund reporting and filing fees.

FAR Form version by year-end

• Year-end 15 September 2015 or later: Must use the new FAR Form via REEFS; older versions of the FAR Form will not be accepted for funds in this category.
• Year-end from 31 December 2014 up to (but before) 15 September 2015: Must use the FAR Form issued 25 May 2015.
• Year-end before 31 December 2014: Continue to use the old FAR Form and the old E-Reporting Portal.

Sub-fund reporting and fees

For funds with year-ends of 15 September 2015 and later that operate multi-fund structures, the notice ends the previous practice of consolidating multiple sub-funds onto a single FAR filing.

• Separate filings required: Each sub-fund (including segregated portfolios, sub-trusts, or share/unit/interest classes that are separately reporting entities) must now be filed on its own FAR Form.
• Filing fee: Each such filing attracts a separate CI$300 fee.
• De-registration filings: Funds that had previously been permitted to email audited financial accounts to CIMA for de-registration purposes must now instead file both the audited accounts and the new FAR Form through the REEFS portal.

Key obligations

• Regulated funds with a financial year-end of 15 September 2015 or later must use the new FAR Form via the REEFS portal; older FAR Form versions will not be accepted for these funds.
• Funds with a financial year-end from 31 December 2014 up to (but before) 15 September 2015 must use the FAR Form issued 25 May 2015.
• Funds with a financial year-end prior to 31 December 2014 must continue using the old FAR Form and the old E-Reporting Portal.
• For funds with a year-end of 15 September 2015 or later that have a multi-fund operating structure, a separate individual FAR Form must be submitted for each sub-fund (including segregated portfolios, sub-trusts, or standalone-reporting share/unit/interest classes).
• Each individual sub-fund FAR filing must be accompanied by the applicable CI$300 FAR filing fee, paid by the fund.
• Consolidated or aggregated FAR filings covering multiple sub-funds on one form are no longer permitted.
• Funds previously permitted to submit audited financial accounts by email for de-registration purposes must now file both the audited financial accounts and the new FAR Form through the relevant row on the REEFS portal.

Applies to

regulated funds, mutual funds, sub-funds, segregated portfolio companies, umbrella or master unit trusts, funds with multi-fund/multi-portfolio structures

Deadlines

• 15 September 2015 and later: Funds with year-end on or after this date must use the new FAR Form via REEFS and file individual FAR Forms per sub-fund with a CI$300 fee each.
• 31 December 2014 or later, but prior to 15 September 2015: Funds with year-end in this range must use the previous FAR Form issued on 25 May 2015.
• prior to 31 December 2014: Funds with year-end before this date continue to use the old FAR Form and old E-Reporting Portal.