As part of the consultation, the Securities and Futures Commission has proposed removing the mandatory requirement to publish prices or net asset values and any information on dealing suspension through newspapers.
Taking note of the availability and use of multiple channels of dissemination of information along with regulatory practices in other countries, the Hong Kong regulator said it is providing flexibility to fund houses to decide on the channel of communication to investors.
Present norms require fund houses to publish scheme’s prices or latest net asset value at least once a month in at least one leading Hong Kong English language and one Chinese language daily newspaper. This also includes disclosing information about any decision on suspension of dealing.
Since most of the schemes are regularly publishing offer and redemption prices or NAVs on websites, the regulator has also proposed more frequent dissemination of NAV. It has proposed fund houses to disclose prices or NAVs of funds on every dealing day in order to enhance transparency to investors.
“We continually fine-tune our standards and practices and in this particular case we took note of the fact that members of the public now access information through a wide variety of channels,” said Ashley Alder, SFC, chief executive.
The proposed norms would be applicable to all the new schemes from an effective date to be announced later by the regulator. A six-month transitional period would be offered to the existing schemes.
The consultation is open until 23 July.
