Online Funds and Securities Forms Now Available (2017-10-03)

Summary

This is a general industry notice from CIMA announcing that a range of funds and securities-related application, change request, and other forms are now available through its online REEFS (Regulatory Enhanced Electronic Forms Submission) portal.

• Fund and securities forms: Mutual fund applications, mutual fund administrator licensing, Securities Investment Business Licence (SIBL) applications, SIBL excluded person applications and renewals, and fund termination/addition requests.
• Cross-sector forms: A set of forms used across all regulated sectors, e.g. change of auditor, change of name, change of registered office, change of year-end, extension of time to file audited accounts, letters of good standing, and personal questionnaires.

The notice applies to mutual funds, mutual fund administrators, SIBL holders and SIBL excluded persons, and more broadly to CIMA registrants/licensees across regulated sectors who submit the listed application or change-request forms.

• Mandatory use of REEFS: Use of the online REEFS forms for these processes became mandatory as of 1 October 2017, and paper-based applications, change requests or return filings for processes available via REEFS will no longer be accepted by the Authority after that date.
• CIMA Connect discontinued: The older CIMA Connect portal, previously used for fund registration applications, was discontinued as of 30 September 2017, with all fund registration applications moving to REEFS.

The notice is informational/administrative in nature but does create a concrete compliance change: affected entities and their service providers must transition to submitting the specified applications, change requests and filings through the REEFS portal rather than on paper.

Key obligations

• Service providers, registrants and licensees must submit the listed funds and securities applications, change requests and return filings via the REEFS online portal rather than on paper.
• Paper-based applications, change requests or return filings for processes available on REEFS will not be accepted by CIMA after the stated cutover date.
• Entities previously using the CIMA Connect portal for fund registration applications must instead submit these through REEFS.

Applies to

mutual funds, mutual fund administrators, Securities Investment Business Licence (SIBL) holders, SIBL excluded persons, service providers and other authorized users/registrants and licensees across regulated sectors

Deadlines

• 1 October 2017: Use of online REEFS forms for the listed funds and securities processes (and common cross-sector processes) becomes mandatory; no paper-based applications, change requests or return filings available via REEFS will be accepted after this date.
• 30 September 2017: The CIMA Connect portal, previously used for fund registration applications, is discontinued, with all such applications moving to the REEFS portal.