In February this year the Minister of Finance declared that all hedge funds would operate under the Collective Investment Schemes Controls Act (CISCA) with effect from 1 April 2015.
The declaration required hedge fund operators to lodge applications with the Registrar of CIS to register as a CIS manager by 30 September 2015. The effect is that operators of unregulated hedge funds would be required to register as a CIS manager as well as to establish a scheme including a portfolio or portfolios in terms of CISCA. The application would have to include registration of unregulated funds existing at 31 March 2015.
It has however surfaced that despite this declaration, certain operators continued to establish new hedge funds without registering the funds with the Registrar.
This circular advises all persons who are currently operating hedge funds established after 1 April 2015 to lodge their application as hedge fund managers by no later than 30 September 2015, and failure to do this will lead to regulatory action.
Further to this, the FSB issued a Guidance Note to provide clarity on some implementation and interpretation issues which were raised by industry in relation to the registration of hedge funds set out in BN52 of 2015. This Guidance Note deals with the effective date of the Notice, matters pertaining to tax treatment, clarification of certain definitions and interpretations, fees and the application process.