UCITS – new Swiss rules on filing amendments to fund documents

Since 1 January 2021, the amended FINMA Collective Investment Schemes Ordinance (CISO-FINMA) has required UCITS to publish on their recognised Swiss electronic publication platform any investor communications under the rules of the UCITS’s home jurisdiction which relate (directly or indirectly) to an amendment of the UCITS’s fund documents.

We understand that the rules also apply to UK UCITS which are registered for offering to non-qualified investors in Switzerland.

Publication must be in whichever language the fund uses when filing documents in Switzerland – so, where this is not English, the publication will need to be translated into the appropriate language.

Communications will be subject to the Swiss publication requirement regardless of the form required under the rules of the UCITS’s home jurisdiction. So, communications in the form of actual publications (e.g., investor letters or notifications via a website relating directly or indirectly to an amendment of the UCITS’s fund documents) must be published in Switzerland as a publication on the UCITS’s recognised Swiss electronic publication platform.

The publication in Switzerland will need to contain the Swiss disclosure and must not refer to funds/sub-funds which are not registered in Switzerland for offering to non-qualified investors or (in the case of ETFs) share classes not listed in Switzerland.

Publication in Switzerland must take place at the same time as the communication is made in the UCITS’s home jurisdiction (although we understand that a short time lag of a day or so is currently tolerated).

The procedure for amendments to fund documents will otherwise remain as before 1 January 2021, with the FINMA filing deadline remaining 30 days from the effective date of the amendment and other required documentation will be unchanged.