Consultation paper: Proposed exemption from requirement to name assets

First published 25 June 2018 

We are consulting on a proposal to grant a class exemption to funds invested in loans secured by first-ranking mortgages from having to disclose the names of individual borrowers to investors provided other relevant information has been disclosed.

Please send your feedback to [email protected] (please use the title of the consultation paper for the subject line).

Submissions closed 5 pm Monday 23 July 2018.

Update

25 July 2019

Following our consultation, there is now an exemption in place. The Financial Markets Conduct (Managed Funds – Loan Disclosure Requirements) Exemption Notice 2019 provides exemptions effective 1 August 2019 for managers of schemes that invest in secured loans from the requirement to name borrowers in disclosure documents or on the Disclose Register.  Alternative information about the secured property must be provided instead that will be more useful for investors.

Every manager of a registered scheme that is a managed fund is required to provide the following information:

• a list of the 10 highest-value individual assets of the fund and certain information against that list, including the name of the individual asset, in both the register entry for the offer and each quarterly fund update:
• a complete list of the individual assets of the fund and certain information against that list, including the name of the asset, in the register entry for the offer.   This information must also be updated within 40 working days after 31 March and 30 September in each year.

For assets such as loans secured by first ranking registered mortgages over property, the name of the individual asset would need to include the name of the borrower under that loan. This notice exempts the managers of managed funds that invest in these assets from the requirement to provide the name of the borrower. Instead, under the conditions of the exemption, the manager must include the following alternative information:

•  a description of the principal property secured by the mortgage as either residential, commercial, or rural and the geographical region in which the principal secured property is located:
•  the composition of the fund’s assets expressed as a percentage according to specified asset types, the composition of the loans according to geographical region, details regarding the value of impaired loans (if any), and the composition of those impaired loans expressed as a percentage according to each geo. graphical region and each specified asset type, together with details of the maximum loan-to-value ratio for each type of loan.

While this notice exempts managers from providing the name of the borrower, there is no exemption from the requirement to disclose all material information. Therefore, the manager must still disclose any circumstances relating to the borrower that are material (eg, the borrower is a discharged bankrupt).

If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]