Performance Pledges

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Introduction         The SFC's most important function is to the protection of investors, the SFC serves them and market practitioners in a number of ways. As part of the SAR Government's Serving the Community Scheme, the SFC has made pledges to the public regarding the performance of its responsibilities. Outlined below are standards of services the public can take if they wish to seek explanation or make comments on the services they receive.

The public should be aware that the SFC is constrained by its enabling legislation with regard to the information that it can disclose to the public (including complainants), especially with regard to investigation and enforcement matters.

Investor Enquiries and Complaints         The Investor Education and Communications Unit has pledged to give a preliminary response to any enquiry or complaint made by telephone within two working days of the call being received. Written enquiries or complaints are usually of a more complicated nature and therefore may require more detailed consideration. To date, the Unit has also undertaken to provide a preliminary response to any written enquiry or complaint within one week of the correspondence being received. During the year, the SFC received 6,239 enquiries and complaints from the investing public. Preliminary responses were provided within these time frames for all cases.

In view of the dramatic rise in number of enquiries and complaints, evident by a more than tripling of cases in fiscal 97/98 compared to last year, the Unit considers it necessary to review the existing pledge to ensure that a satisfactory preliminary response is given even in cases where complicated issues are involved. The Unit now pledges that a preliminary response will be provided within four working days to any enquiry or complaint made by phone, and with regards to written enquiries or complaints, a preliminary response is provided within two weeks of the correspondence being received. The Unit also undertakes to review this pledge periodically to ensure that the pledged time is appropriate for the volume of investor enquiries and complaints handled.

Investment Products Department         The Investment Products Department has pledged to take up all applications for authorization of investment products and prospectuses within two working days of their receipt. This pledge has been met in 100% of the applications received over the year. The Department has also pledged to respond to applicants within one week of take-up for unit trusts, mutual funds, investment-linked insurance products and pooled retirement funds, and to applicants for other products within two weeks. This pledge was met in 97% of applicants for unit trusts, mutual funds, investment-linked insurance products and pooled retirement funds, and 100% for other products. Each of the cases where some delay was experienced involved complicated policy issues, and responses were made within a few days of the pledged time.

Licensing Department         The Licensing Department has pledged that it will respond to applications for registration within two working days of receipt, and process applications from principal agents and representatives within 15 weeks and 10 weeks respectively after they have submitted all supporting documents.

During the year, applications processing time for principal applicants and representatives has been reduced to an average of 11 weeks and 4 weeks respectively while acknowledgment of applications were generally within the two-day time frame. About 96% of principal applications and 85% of the representative applications were processed within the pledged timeframe as compared with 70% when the SFC made the pledge.

Takeovers and Mergers Department         The Takeovers and Mergers Department has pledged that it will respond to an announcement on the same day it is received, will issue a requisition on offer/offeree document within three days of receipt, and will give its decision in waiver application within five days of receipt of all the information required to process the application. These standards were met in relation to all draft announcements lodged before 6pm and in relation to offer/offeree documents. They were not met in relation to all waiver applications due to the need to clarify or confirm the information provided in relation to the applications concerned, although in all cases the applicant received a response within five days.

Monitoring of Pledges - the Public's Role         The SFC will monitor its performance of these pledges and will publish the results of this monitoring annually.

There will of course be occasions when, despite best efforts, the SFC will not be able to meet its performance pledges or will be unable to deal with public enquiries, complaints, or application to everyone's satisfaction. If investors would like to discuss this with a staff member other than the one with whom they have been dealing, they may call the senior manager, Corporate Communications on 2840-9287.