The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said investment companies in the Philippine, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand can now engage in cross-border sales of their investments schemes like unit trust funds or mutual funds, cross-border.
The SEC on Monday released the rules covering the implementation of the Asean Collective Investment Schemes (CIS) Framework operationalizing an agreement between the four countries’ securities regulators on the solicitation of investments from retail investors.
The Philippines signed the agreement in May, making it the fourth signatory into the CIS framework, which is part of southeast Asian countries’ initiative to create an integrated capital market in the region, and enables the SEC to set up a local framework that will allow the sell of local investment schemes in Southeast Asia and vise-versa.
Under the rules investment companies both local and those from the four countries have to indicate its intent to participate in the framework if they intend to sell their investment schemes on a cross-border basis, apart from satisfying the rules on regulatory requirement of registering their businesses and acquiring the necessary licenses for selling securities.
The scheme widens the investment options of citizens of Asean members.
