On February 8, 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) concurrently adopted amendments to Form PF, the confidential reporting form for many SEC-registered private fund advisers.
The most recent changes to Form PF
The essentials
Once in effect, advisers must report additional information about themselves and their private funds, including:
- Identifying information
- Assets under management
- Withdrawal and redemption rights
- Gross and net asset value
- Inflows and outflows
- Base currency
- Borrowings and types of creditors
- Fair value hierarchy
- Beneficial ownership
- Fund performance
Complex structures
Form PF will typically require separate reporting for each component fund of a master-feeder arrangement and parallel fund structure. Advisers must also identify and report on an aggregated basis trading vehicles used by reporting funds.
Hedge funds
The amendment removes duplicative questions, but hedge fund advisers must provide more detailed information regarding:
- Investment strategies
- Counterparty exposures
- Trading and clearing mechanisms
Large hedge fund advisers
Advisers of hedge funds with a net asset value of at least $500 million must provide better insight into:
- Investment exposures
- Borrowing and counterparty exposure
- Market factor effects
- Currency exposure
- Turnover
- Country and industry exposure
- Central clearing counterparty reporting
- Risk metrics
- Investment performance by strategy
- Portfolio liquidity
- Financing
- Investor liquidity
Additionally, advisers to large hedge funds will no longer need to report certain aggregate information.
When will the latest Form PF amendments go into effect?
The final amendments to Form PF will become effective one year after the rule is published in the Federal Register.
Previous amendments to Form PF
The SEC adopted amendments to Form PF on May 3, 2023. The current and quarterly event reporting amendments went into effect on December 11, 2023, and the rest of the amendments will go into effect one year after publication, on June 11, 2024.
All private equity fund advisers must file a quarterly event report upon the occurrence of a trigger event, such as:
- Removal of a general partner
- Election to terminate the fund
- Election to terminate the fund’s investment period
- An adviser-led secondary transaction
Large private equity fund advisers with at least $2 billion in private equity AUM must file an annual report regarding general partner and limited partner clawbacks, as well as report additional information on their strategies and borrowings.
Additionally, large hedge fund advisers with at least $1.5 billion in hedge fund AUM must file a report as soon as applicable, but not longer than 72 hours after the occurrence of a trigger event, such as:
- Extraordinary investment losses
- Significant margin and default events
- Terminations or material restrictions of prime broker relationships
- Operations events
- Large withdrawal and redemption requests
- Inability to pay redemption requests
- Suspension of redemptions for more than five concurrent business days
Additionally, on July 12, 2023, the SEC adopted amendments to rules applicable to money market funds and large private liquidity fund advisers. As of June 11, 2024, these advisers must provide additional information on Form PF regarding their liquidity funds.
Key resources
February 2024 Press Release, SEC Adopts Amendments to Enhance Private Fund Reporting
Fact Sheet, SEC/CFTC Amendments to Form PF
Final Rule, Form PF; Reporting Requirements for All Filers and Large Hedge Fund Advisers
May 2023 Press Release, SEC Adopts Amendments to Enhance Private Fund Reporting
May 2023 Fact Sheet, Amendments to Form PF
Final Rule, Form PF; Event Reporting for Large Hedge Fund Advisers and Private Equity Fund Advisers; Requirements for Large Private Equity Fund Adviser Reporting
Stay up to date with SEC rules and amendments
Subscribe to Ontra to receive more in-depth information on SEC rules and how Insight, Ontra’s AI-powered private fund lifecycle solution, can help advisers comply with investor obligations and SEC regulations.
