Preliminary

Long title “An Order to provide for the regulation of mutual funds in Brunei Darussalam, the supervision and licensing of such funds and of persons promoting and providing services in connection therewith and for other matters relating to mutual funds”.

“The Authority” means such persons appointed by His Majesty for the purposes of the Order, and the responsible Minister is the Minister of Finance.

Provision is made for Public Funds, Private Funds and Professional Funds, Islamic Funds are specifically defined as funds which do not offend against the Religion of Islam.

Mutual Funds may be in the form of a body corporate, a unit trust, a limited partnership or other arrangement whereby participants (investors) may benefit from the pooling of funds, diversification and the spreading of risk. No bearer shares may be issued without the specific consent of the Minister.

Regulation of Operation

No mutual fund may be established, domiciled, offered to the public, traded listed, managed or administered from within Brunei Darussalam unless it holds the appropriate licence or permission issued by the Authority. Managers, administrators, custodians and trustees (together referred to as “operators”) are required to be appropriately licensed or permitted. Trust companies licensed under the Registered Agents and Licensed Trustees Order, 2000 and appropriately licensed banks (domestic or international) are permitted operators.

Applications for licences are made to the Authority in the manner required, with full disclosure to the Authority of particulars of participants. There is a requirement for the appointment of an appropriate Syari’ah Council in the case of an Islamic fund.

A person cannot be both (i) a manager and (ii) a trustee or custodian of the same fund.

Provisional licensing is accommodated on terms permitted by the Authority, which may also impose conditions on the terms of licensing of both funds and operators.