MAS launches new VCC grant scheme to defray costs for fund managers

THE Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Wednesday launched a new variable capital companies (VCC) grant scheme to help fund managers defray costs when incorporating or registering a VCC.

MAS will co-fund up to 70 per cent of eligible expenses paid to Singapore-based service providers. The grant is capped at S$150,000 for each application, with a maximum of three VCCs per fund manager.

Available for up to three years, the new grant scheme will be funded by the Financial Sector Development Fund established by MAS in 1999.

The scheme is meant to encourage industry adoption of the freshly launched VCC framework in Singapore.

MAS and the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra) introduced the framework on Wednesday.

It is a new corporate structure in the Republic that allows fund managers to constitute investment funds as VCCs across both traditional and alternative strategies, and as open-ended or closed-ended funds.

The framework aims to give fund managers more flexibility and cost savings while encouraging more funds to be domiciled in Singapore.

On Wednesday, an inaugural batch of 20 investment funds were incorporated or re-domiciled as VCCs by a group of 18 fund managers, as part of the pilot programme started by MAS and Acra last September.

Benny Chey, MAS assistant managing director (development and international), said the new VCC framework will create opportunities for Singapore-based fund service providers such as legal and tax advisors, accountants, fund administrators and fund custodians.

More fund managers are expected to use the VCC framework to structure their investment funds, he added.