Hong Kong's Securities And Futures Commission Launch FASTrack Authorisation For Luxembourg Funds

Scope and Purpose

On 21 October 2024, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (the "SFC") announced a new fast track authorisation scheme for certain investment funds from Luxembourg and other qualifying jurisdictions.

The SFC's new Fund Authorisation Simple Track ("FASTrack")'¹ was announced in a ‘Circular to applicants seeking SFC authorisation of unit trust and mutual funds' (the "Circular") and is expected to streamline the process by which the SFC approves simple foreign mutual funds for marketing to the public in Hong Kong.

Historically, the SFC has had a two-stream approach being (i) standard, applications whereby funds' authorisation applications are processed within between one and two months, and (ii) non-standard applications, where applications are processed between two and three months.