On October 26, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted Form PF, which it jointly designed with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to collect systemic risk data about hedge funds and other private funds. The CFTC is expected to vote on adopting the form within the next week. While Form PF is not yet available, SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro indicated that the new form reflects changes to the original proposal. These changes include:
- establishing a minimum threshold for filing of $150 million for all private fund advisers and increasing the filing threshold for private equity fund advisers;
- extending the filing deadline from 15 days to 60 days after the end of each quarter for larger hedge fund advisers and from 90 days to 120 days after the end of each year for smaller advisers and large private equity fund advisers;
- decreasing filing frequency from quarterly to annually for large private equity fund advisers;
- reducing the amount of information collected from large private equity fund advisers; and
- permitting the use of internal rather than standardized calculation methodologies.
There will be a two-stage phase-in period for compliance with Form PF. Most private fund advisers will be required to begin filing the form following the end of their first fiscal year or fiscal quarter, as applicable, that ends on or after December 15, 2012. However, private fund advisers with at least $5 billion in assets under management must begin filing the form following the end of their first fiscal year or fiscal quarter, as applicable, to end on or after June 15, 2012.
To read the SEC press release and fact sheet, click here.
To read Mary Schapiro’s speech, click here.
To read a summary of the original Form PF proposal in the January 28, 2011 edition of Corporate and Financial Weekly Digest, click here.