Procedure - Issuing Notices of Decisions to Declined Applicants

Summary

This is a CIMA internal procedure document explaining how the Authority issues "Notices of Decisions" when it declines an application for a licence, or declines an application by a person seeking to act as a director, shareholder, manager, senior officer or controller of a licensee. It sets out that no Warning Notice is issued in these cases, but instead a Notice of Decision is sent to give the applicant the Authority's reasons for the refusal, in the interest of transparency and fairness under Section 6(3)(f) of the Monetary Authority Law.

• Required content: A Notice of Decision must be in writing, stating the decision, the reasons for it, and the effective date.
• Exceptional circumstances for withholding reasons: The Authority may withhold its reasons in cases such as legally privileged information, court-ordered non-disclosure, AML/CFT suspicions, confidential regulatory or law enforcement information, or national security or public interest grounds.
• Approval requirement: Any decision not to disclose reasons in these situations must be approved by CIMA's Board.
• Recipients: The Notice of Decision is sent to the applicant, the licensee/proposed licensee, and any person acting for them.
• Finality: The notice is final, subject to statutory rights of reconsideration or appeal.
• Appendix: A sample Notice of Decision template is included as an appendix.

Overall, this is a description of CIMA's internal decision-notification process rather than a set of compliance obligations imposed on regulated entities themselves.

Applies to

applicants for a licence, persons applying to act as director, shareholder, manager, senior officer or controller of a licensee, licensees/proposed licensees