The Financial Services Agency has put a draft rule change out for public comment that would let investment corporations use electronic delivery for information that must appear in financial statements, as long as the material stays accessible online for five years after notice is issued and the corporation’s articles of incorporation allow that setup.
The change sits in Article 81 of the Calculation Rules for Investment Corporations, and the draft language spells out a fairly specific workflow, not just a vague “go digital” nudge. The information would need to be kept continuously available by electronic means, using an internet-connected automated public transmission device. In plain English, this looks like a rule for maintaining a website-based delivery channel that investors can actually reach, rather than an archive that disappears after a housekeeping refresh.
There is also a built-in carve-out that matters for compliance teams. If an investor asks for the statement material through the prescribed method during the five-year period, the provision is treated as having been made to that investor under the relevant rule. But that deemed-delivery treatment applies only when the investment corporation’s articles include a clause saying it will use this approach.
For listed real estate-style vehicles and other investment corporations, the practical takeaway is simple enough: the rule is trying to make electronic disclosure workable, but not casual. Whoever runs the disclosure process would need to maintain the online delivery setup, make sure the governing documents authorize it, and keep the relevant material available for the full five years. The paperwork, in other words, does not get to vanish just because the browser tab does.
The FSA published the proposal on May 26 and invited public comments on the draft Cabinet Office ordinance amendment. The agency’s note does not itself say when, or whether, the proposal will be finalized, so the next step is still the comment process rather than a completed rule change.