On 29 September 2020, the SFC’s Investment Products Division and Intermediaries Division jointly published a circular (1st attachment) on the Electronic Dissemination of Investment Product Documents as well as related FAQs for issuers of SFC-authorized funds (2nd attachment). The circular provides the SFC’s guidance and general principles on post-sale dissemination of documents in electronic form and its arrangements. It also provides guidelines for transitional arrangements, instructing that issuers and intermediaries must ensure to have in place proper transitional arrangements which comply with applicable laws and regulations governing SFC-authorized Products and their constitutive documents.
The SFC would also like to highlight that the adoption of electronic dissemination of product documents is voluntary and the Circular is principles-based so that the industry has sufficient flexibility to develop their own detailed procedures and controls. The SFC also noted that the Circular is not intended to change the existing regulatory requirements applicable to product issuers and intermediaries.
In addition, the SFC has also provided a summary of industry comments and associated SFC responses (3rd attachment) for our reference.