Lightman Enterprises Transfer Agent Hong Kong

Hong Kong Securities and Exchange Commission Adopts Amendments to Transfer Agent Reporting Rules

Central (I-Newswire) September 17, 2012 - The HK SEC recently adopted amendments to the rules under the Securities Exchange Act HK governing annual reporting requirements of registered transfer agents, as well as amendments to Form TA-2, the form on which registered transfer agents' annual reports are filed.

Under the amended rule, the reporting period for all filing data will be the calendar year, and each transfer agent registered on any December will be required to file Form TA-2 for that calendar year by March of the following year. The amended rule will allow partial exceptions to the full filing requirement for registered transfer agents that received fewer than 1000 items for transfer during the calendar year and did not maintain master shareholder files for more than 100 individual shareholder accounts as of December 31. Partial exceptions will also be available for named transfer agents that engage service companies to perform some or all of their transfer agent functions.

In addition to numerous technical and conforming changes, the revisions to Form TA-2 include:

instructions that transfer agents count securities by CUSIP rather than by prospectus;revised items requesting information regarding issues for which dividend reinvestment plans and/or direct purchase plan accounts are provided; new items requesting information regarding Direct Registration System issues and accounts; designation of the former "investment company securities" category as "open-end investment company securities" and inclusion of closed-end fund securities in the "corporate equity" category; and new sections requesting information regarding buy-ins of over issued shares and turnaround time for routine items.

The SEC also is rescinding the rule under which registered transfer agents were required to report the aggregate number of lost shareholder accounts each year and the percentage of total accounts represented by such lost shareholder accounts for several periods. Under the rules as amended, transfer agents will be required to provide the date of each database search for lost shareholders during the reporting period, the number of lost shareholder accounts submitted for each search and the number of accounts for which a different address was obtained as a result of the search. Transfer agents will continue to be required to report the number of lost shareholder accounts that were remitted to the states during the reporting period, but will no longer be required to report the aging of those accounts. Revised Transfer Agent Form and Related Rule. Report by Lee Min So