The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) welcomes the public consultation paper published today by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) on proposed rule amendments for implementing the enhancements of the Mainland-Hong Kong mutual recognition of funds (MRF) scheme.
The draft proposals in the CSRC’s consultation paper include relaxing the sales restrictions for recognised Hong Kong funds in the Mainland and allowing the delegation of investment management functions of recognised Hong Kong funds to overseas asset management companies within the same group. Based on the principle of reciprocity, the SFC will also relax the relevant restrictions on recognised Mainland funds accordingly (Notes 1 and 2).
Enhancing the MRF scheme is one of the five measures announced earlier by the CSRC on the Mainland’s capital market cooperation with Hong Kong. “This would address a longstanding wish of asset managers in Hong Kong for the scheme to be more flexible and to provide more diversified product choices to Mainland investors as well as injecting new impetus into the continuous development of the MRF scheme,” said the SFC’s Chief Executive Officer, Ms Julia Leung.
The SFC will continue to work closely with the CSRC to formulate and implement the measures. Details and the launch date of the enhancements will be announced in due course.
Notes:
- On sales restrictions, currently, the value of units of a recognised fund sold to investors in the host market is capped at 50% of the fund’s total assets. Such cap will be relaxed to 80% after the enhancement.
- On delegation of investment management functions, currently, such functions cannot be delegated to a firm outside the home market. After the enhancement, recognised Hong Kong funds can delegate such functions to an overseas entity within the same group located in a jurisdiction that has entered into a memorandum of understanding on regulatory cooperation with the CSRC, whereas recognised Mainland funds can delegate such functions to an overseas entity within the same group located in a jurisdiction under the SFC’s acceptable inspection regime.
