According to Art. 144 para. 3 CISO, fund management companies, SICAVs, and limited partnerships for collective investment must submit revised fund contracts, investment regulations, and partnership agreements to FINMA within two years of the FinSA and FinIA entering into force. This would make the deadline 31 December 2021.
Since the revision of the self-regulation materials (including model documents) is taking longer than originally anticipated, it is no longer realistic to expect that the documents will be finalized in all languages before the summer vacation period. To ensure that members nevertheless have enough time to implement the revised self-regulation materials, the Asset Management Association Switzerland asked FINMA to extend the deadline for submitting fund documents revised in line with the FinSA and FinIA.
Additionally, on 12 July 2021, FINMA extended the deadline under Art. 144 para. 3 CISO until 30 June 2022. The revised fund documents must now be submitted to FINMA by 30 June 2022 at the latest.
The Asset Management Association Switzerland will also be publishing a new model “distribution agreement”. Distribution agreements are no longer required by law, but they will continue to be used in practice for various reasons, specifically VAT. However, FINMA will not formally recognize this new model agreement. In any case, there is no deadline prescribed by law for replacing existing distribution agreements. In practice, this will probably need to be done in many cases by the FinSA/FinIA deadline at the end of 2021. The contract negotiations this entails tend to be time-consuming, and many institutions will not be able to start them until they have the new model agreement. We believe that this demands a pragmatic approach (“best effort”) from all concerned. However, once the transition periods expire, the duties stipulated in the FinSA must be fulfilled in all cases.
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