Your company must obtain MAS' prior approval, if your company wishes to act as trustee for collective investment schemes (CIS) constituted as unit trusts, where the CIS are authorised under section 286 of the Securities and Futures Act 2001 (SFA)  or are restricted schemes constituted in Singapore and entered into the list of restricted schemes maintained by MAS.

When assessing an application to be an approved CIS trustee (AT), MAS takes into account factors such as:

• Fitness and propriety of the applicant, its shareholders and directors.
• Track record and management expertise of the applicant and its parent company or major shareholders.
• Ability to meet the minimum financial requirements prescribed under the Securities and Futures (Offers of Investments) (Collective Investment Schemes) Regulations 2005 .
• Strength of internal compliance systems and processes of the applicant.
• Business model/plans and projections and the associated risks.

For more information, please refer to the following:

(i) Section 289 of the SFA  

(ii) Regulation 5 of the Securities and Futures (Offers of Investments) (Collective Investment Schemes) Regulations 2005

The applicant should have minimum paid-up capital of S$1 million and minimum shareholder's funds of S$1 million.

If your company is applying to be an AT for CIS, your company should complete and submit Form 3 to seek MAS' approval.

A non-refundable application fee of $500 is payable to the Authority for the submission of this application. The application fee is prescribed under regulation 4 of the Regulations. The applicant will be advised on the manner of payment for the application fee upon the Authority’s receipt of your application.

MAS expects to take not more than 6 months to review and process an application if the business model is straightforward, the applicant meets the relevant admission criteria fully, and the application is complete and clear. For more complex cases, or cases where information is assessed to be incomplete or inaccurate, MAS will need a longer time to review the application.

Please ensure that your application is complete, correct and accompanied by the requisite supporting documents.

The annual fee is $2,000.

MAS' approval is valid until:

• The AT stops conducting its business, and the approval is ceased by MAS.
• The approval is revoked by MAS in accordance with section 289(4) of the SFA.

All ATs are listed on the Financial Institutions Directory. Correspondingly, all ATs that cease their business will be removed from the Financial Institutions Directory.

You can find out more about approved CIS trustees (AT) at the Approved CIS Trustees page.

MAS also publishes a Licensing and Registration Report for Capital Markets Intermediaries (including approved CIS trustees).
 
For more information on the common approvals, notifications and other regulatory submissions relevant to approved CIS trustees, please refer to the Compliance Toolkit for Approvals, Notifications and Other Regulatory Submissions to MAS for Licensed and Exempt Trust Companies and Approved CIS Trustees.