Information disclosure rules optimization to strengthen the foundation of high-quality public fund development

Recently, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) released the “Administrative Measures on Information Disclosure for Publicly Offered Securities Investment Funds—No. 2: Content and Format of Periodic Reports” (hereinafter referred to as the “Guidelines”), which are scheduled to take official effect on May 1, 2026. This move is an important institutional arrangement by the regulatory authorities to implement the “Action Plan for High-Quality Development of Publicly Offered Funds,” and it is also a landmark milestone in the progress of building China’s publicly offered fund information disclosure framework. In the author’s view, through this revision, one can clearly see the regulatory bodies’ systematic push toward modernization of the system, and one can also feel the care taken to protect investors—laying a solid foundation for the high-quality development of the publicly offered fund industry.

First, it strengthens the foundation for unified rules and effectively reduces industry compliance costs, giving industry development clearer standards to follow. For a long time, the annual reports, semi-annual reports, and quarterly reports of publicly offered funds each correspond to three separate sets of information disclosure standards. There is a large amount of overlapping provisions among them: similar information is repeatedly required across different reports, and the formats differ. This not only creates a heavy compliance burden for fund managers but also creates unnecessary barriers for investors when comparing and reading.

The “Guidelines” integrate the three sets of rules into a unified framework, using “periodic reports” as the overarching concept that governs the entire document. This is a deep reform that reshapes the institutional architecture from a systems-thinking perspective. After the integration, common provisions are standardized uniformly; this not only eliminates potential contradictions among the rules but also provides fund managers with clear, stable, and predictable standards to follow.

Second, it makes information return to its “usefulness” at its core. Based on the respective functional positioning of annual reports, interim reports, and quarterly reports, the “Guidelines” propose targeted and personalized disclosure requirements. It can be seen that fund reports will soon return to the essence of “quick signals.” Strengthening personalized requirements will help compel fund managers to improve report quality and put an end to “template-filling” and “going through the motions.” For small and medium investors, obtaining fund information will be more focused and easier to understand, and the protection of the right to know will be more practical and effective.

Third, it loosens restraints and empowers the development of the publicly offered fund industry. The “Guidelines” explicitly delete certain disclosure provisions that overlap with higher-level regulations. This frees industry resources from burdensome compliance reporting and guides them to focus on improving core information disclosure and the capabilities of investment research and services. For fund managers, this means more resources can be devoted to product design, risk control, and investor service. Overall, this is also a positive signal for pushing the industry to shift toward “capability-based competition.”

Institutional optimization is the cornerstone of high-quality industry development, but institutional implementation needs to be tested over time. How to guide fund managers to truly understand the substantive spirit of differentiated disclosure, rather than treating it as a matter of meeting the minimum compliance requirements—these are key issues that will need ongoing attention in subsequent implementation. It can be seen that the information disclosure system for publicly offered funds is moving into a new stage, laying a solid foundation for the high-quality development of the publicly offered fund industry.