The SEC has approved FINRA filing fees for
SEC-registered hedge fund advisers and other private fund advisers filing Form
PF. Release No. IA-3305. Filing fees are charged for annual reports ($150) and
quarterly reports ($150) to Form PF. Hedge fund and private fund advisers will
file Form PF online through the Private Fund Reporting Depository (PRFD) System,
which is a subsystem of the IARD system. No fee will be charged for filing an
electronic amendment to Form PF, or for a transition to annual reporting
filing.
Form PF is a two-tier scaled regime with enhanced
reporting for larger funds based on an assets under management test. While Form PF is primarily
intended to assist the Financial Stability Oversight Council in its monitoring
obligations under the Dodd-Frank Act, the SEC may use information collected on
Form PF in its regulatory programs, including examinations, investigations and
investor protection efforts relating to private fund advisers.
Registered advisers managing hedge funds must submit
information on Form PF regarding the financing and activities of these funds in
Section 1 of the Form, and large hedge fund advisers are required to provide
additional information in Section 2 of the Form.
Most private fund advisers required to file Form PF
will only need to complete Section 1 of the Form. This section requires
advisers to provide some basic information regarding any private funds they
advise in addition to information about their private fund assets under
management and their funds’ performance and use of leverage. However, larger
private fund advisers must complete additional sections of Form PF, which
require more detailed information.
Specifically, three types of large private fund advisers
would be required to complete additional sections of Form PF. First, any
adviser having at least $1.5 billion in regulatory assets under management
attributable to hedge funds as of the end of any month in the prior fiscal
quarter must complete Section 2 of Form PF. Second, any adviser managing a
liquidity fund and having at least $1 billion in combined regulatory assets
under management attributable to liquidity funds and registered money market
funds as of the end of any month in the prior fiscal quarter must complete Section
3 of Form PF. Third, any adviser having
at least $2 billion in regulatory assets under management attributable to
private equity funds as of the last day of the adviser’s most recently
completed fiscal year must complete Section 4 of Form PF.
The information each of these sections requires is
tailored to the type of fund, focusing on relevant areas of financial activity
that have the potential to raise systemic concerns.