Registered Collective Investment Scheme Rules and Guidance, 2021

Summary

These Rules, issued by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission under the Protection of Investors (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2020, set out the standards that registered open-ended and closed-ended collective investment schemes must meet. They replace the 2018 version of the Rules and took effect on 1 November 2021, applying to each constituent part of an umbrella fund as if it were a separate scheme.

• Administration and custody: Every scheme must have a designated administrator, and open-ended schemes must also have an independent designated custodian or trustee that is separately licensed and incorporated in the Bailiwick, with no shared officers or subsidiary relationship.
• Audit: Every registered scheme must appoint a qualified auditor meeting specified professional body standards.
• Conflicts of interest: Directors, general partners and trustees must ensure that dealings between the scheme and any relevant person (administrator, custodian, adviser, manager, or associates) are conducted on arm's length terms.
• Information particulars: Directors, general partners, managers or trustees must prepare information particulars meeting the Prospectus Rules 2021, review them at least annually for open schemes accepting new subscriptions, and ensure they contain no false or misleading statements, including a prescribed statement from Schedule 1.
• Notifications to the Commission: The designated administrator must give immediate written notice of any change of administrator/custodian/trustee, restructuring, winding up, or addition of classes/sub-funds/cells, plus annual notifications of changes to registration information.
• Reporting: Administrators must submit audited annual reports and accounts within six months of the end of the accounting period, and quarterly statistical returns, both via the Commission's online Submissions Portal.
• Registration process: Applications for registration or for adding classes, sub-funds or cells must include specified documents, application fees, and other required information, and additions do not take effect until Commission approval is given.

Registrations and prior exclusions or modifications granted under earlier versions of the Rules (2008, 2015, 2018) remain valid and continue to apply where the current Law and Rules allow. The 2018 Rules are revoked but continue to apply to any outstanding obligations arising under them.

Key obligations

• Every registered investment scheme must have a designated administrator and, if open-ended, a designated custodian or designated trustee that is independent, separately licensed, and based in the Bailiwick.
• Every registered investment scheme must appoint a qualified auditor.
• Directors, general partners and trustees must take reasonable steps to ensure all dealings between the scheme and any relevant person satisfy the arm's length requirement.
• Information particulars must be prepared in line with the Prospectus Rules 2021 and must include the statement set out in Schedule 1 or words of equivalent effect.
• Information particulars for open-ended schemes open to new subscriptions must be reviewed at least once every twelve months.
• Directors, general partner or trustee must take reasonable steps to ensure information particulars are not false or misleading.
• The designated administrator must give immediate written notice to the Commission of any proposed change of administrator, custodian or trustee, or any proposal to reconstruct, amalgamate, terminate, wind up or extend the scheme's life.
• The designated administrator of a closed-ended scheme must give immediate written notice of the addition of classes, sub-funds or cells.
• The designated administrator must notify the Commission annually, in writing via the online Submissions Portal, of any change (or no change) to registration information.
• The designated administrator must submit audited annual report and accounts, via the Submissions Portal, no later than six months after the end of the annual accounting period, along with any previously unsubmitted amended principal documents.
• The designated administrator must submit a quarterly statistical return via the Submissions Portal within the Commission's agreed timeframes.
• Applications for registration of a scheme must include the application form, final principal documents and information particulars, application fee, and other required information.
• Any proposal to add classes, sub-funds or cells to an open-ended scheme requires prior written notice to the Commission with supporting documents and fee, and does not take effect until Commission approval.

Applies to

registered open-ended investment schemes, registered closed-ended investment schemes, designated administrators, designated custodians, designated trustees, directors of scheme companies, general partners of limited partnership schemes, qualified auditors

Deadlines

• 1st November 2021: Commencement date of the Registered Collective Investment Scheme Rules 2021
• no later than six months following the end of the annual accounting period: Deadline for submitting audited annual report and accounts to the Commission
• each quarter: Statistical return must be submitted to the Commission for each quarter
• each year: Annual notification to the Commission of any change (or no change) in registration information
• at least once in every twelve months: Review of information particulars for open-ended schemes open to new subscriptions

Related documents

• This document is made under Protection of Investors (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2020