Page 81 - 期货和衍生品行业监管动态（2022年12月）

期货和衍生品行业监管动态

investors may not be able to get back their VA from their accounts and may
risk losing their entire investment held on the platform.

 VA are exposed to heightened risks including insufficient liquidity, high

price volatility, opaque pricing, potential market manipulation, hacking and

fraud and may lose all value.

 Some VA Arrangements could amount to a collective investment scheme

(CIS) (Note 3) as defined under the Securities and Futures Ordinance (SFO)

if the participating investors do not have day-to-day control over the

management of their VA and the VA are pooled and/or managed as a whole

by the operator to generate returns for investors. Such VA Arrangements may

be unauthorised CIS (Note 4) and may be highly risky. The product will

not have been vetted nor its offer and marketing materials reviewed by the
SFC. Investors will have no protection under the SFO.

Investors are urged to be wary of the potential high risks associated with VA

Arrangements, and if they cannot fully understand them and bear the potential

significant or total losses, they should not make an investment.

The SFC also wishes to remind parties engaging in these VA Arrangements that

certain arrangements could amount to a CIS as described above.

It is an offence (Note 5) under the SFO for a person to issue an advertisement,

invitation or document which is or contains an invitation to the Hong Kong public to

acquire an interest in or participate in a CIS, unless the issue has been authorised by

the SFC or an exemption applies. Moreover, it is also an offence (Note 6) under the

SFO for a person to carry on a business of marketing or distributing interests in a CIS

in Hong Kong or targeting Hong Kong investors without an SFC licence unless an
exemption applies.

The SFC takes breaches of the SFO seriously and will take robust enforcement

action promptly to safeguard investors’ interests.

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