Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) will ease procedures for fund launches to cut down on its administrative work, and also make changes to its so-called deep cultivation programme for foreign asset managers.
Applications for fund launches are currently done through the approval channel and the declaration channel, both of which are overseen by the FSC.
Starting January 2024, the regulator will outsource the tasks of the declaration channel for domestic funds and non-environmental, social and governance funds to other bodies, including the Taiwan Stock Exchange, Taipei Exchange and Taiwan Depository and Clearing Corporation.
The declaration channel is where assets managers apply for fund launches by declaring the details and registering the funds with the authorities. No official applications are required, unlike for the approval channel, which will remain under the FSC’s oversight.
The move will “significantly” reduce the FSC’s administrative burden and improve efficiency, the regulator says in a statement on September 21, noting that the number of locally registered onshore and offshore funds had increased from 1,766 seven years ago to 2,010 as of August 2023.
“With the growth of the fund industry, FSC needed to handle over 300 applications for new fund listings or renewal annually over the past three years,” it says.
Meanwhile, the regulator is changing the application process for the deep cultivation programme from the current approval system to a declaration system, and delegating the Taiwan Depository and Clearing Corporation to handle applications. It didn’t specify when this will become effective.
This is a programme where foreign managers are given concessions such as being allowed to submit more products for approval at one go if they meet requirements such as local employment and size of funds.
These privileges are only valid for one to two years so foreign firms have to keep applying for them on a regular basis.