From Ogier

As you may already be aware, all Cayman Islands domiciled investment funds which are registered with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) are required to file with CIMA audited annual financial statements together with a Fund Annual Return (FAR) within 6 months of the end of the fund’s financial year. The FAR has traditionally been filed with CIMA by the fund’s auditors at the same time as the audited financial statements are filed.

Earlier this year, CIMA introduced a filing fee in respect of the FAR of US$366 which must be paid prior to the end of the 6 months following the financial year end. Initially, it was anticipated that the auditors would attend to the collection from the fund and payment to CIMA of this FAR filing fee. However, recently, CIMA has confirmed that it will accept payment of the fee from other service providers and from the fund itself, something that will make processing the fee and ensuring its timely payment significantly easier.

At Ogier Fiduciary Services (Cayman) Limited, we have concluded that, with effect from next year, we will include the recovery of the FAR filing fees in our annual invoice in order that we can provide a simple solution for our clients, thereby mitigating the risk of the fee not being paid in time and the fund being regarded as delinquent in its regulatory compliance.

However, the obligation for payment of the FAR filing fee for the current year remains. As such, we recommend that, in respect of each CIMA registered fund which you operate, you:

contact the fund’s auditors to confirm whether or not the FAR filing fee has been settled; and                                  if it is still outstanding, either

(i) arrange for the FAR filing fee of US$366 to be settled direct with CIMA through one of the means outlined on CIMA’s website, or

(ii) contact your usual point of contact at Ogier Fiduciary Services (Cayman) Limited in order that we can collect the FAR filing fee amount from you and settle it with CIMA on behalf of the fund. In order that you are fully aware of the costs involved, we will apply a one off administrative charge of $100 in each case for handling this process.

With a majority of funds adopting a December 31 financial year end, the deadline for payment of the FAR filing fee will be June 30th. Failure to pay on or prior to that day will result in the fund becoming delinquent which may be reported on CIMA’s website.