The SFC and the Accounting and Financial Reporting Council signed a new memorandum of understanding on 28 September. It extends their regulatory cooperation to the financial reporting of licensed firms and funds. The SFC published it the same day as refNo 26PR156, one release behind a separate update to the securities industry on scam prevention and cybersecurity (26PR157). (Two notices in one day is the SFC's way of saying the week's homework has been assigned.)

Take the parties first. The SFC's Intermediaries Division supervises licensed corporations. The AFRC is the body that looks at audits and financial reporting. The MoU extends the cooperation between those two lines.

For a licensed firm, that suggests the audited numbers filed with the SFC are not only a licensing formality. A discrepancy in a fund's accounts may now be something two regulators can discuss.

The release, as published, does not say how many firms or funds are in scope. It gives no date for the first joint exercise and no new rule. It changes no filing deadline. The MoU is an agreement between two regulators, not a new obligation in the Code of Conduct or the Internal Control Guidelines.

Look, an MoU is cheap to sign and slow to bite. My read is that the first sign of it will be a query from one regulator that quotes a finding from the other. The release supplies no date for that.