The Private Funds Act — Cayman Islands (2025 Revision)

The Private Funds Act is Cayman's registration-and-oversight regime for closed-ended funds — private equity, venture, credit and real-estate vehicles whose investors cannot redeem at will. A qualifying private fund must register with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA), and once registered it carries continuing duties: an annual audit signed off by a CIMA-approved auditor, an annual return and fee, and a set of operational controls over how the fund's assets are valued, held and monitored. It is the closed-ended counterpart to the Mutual Funds Act, which covers open-ended funds.

Scope and the core obligations

The Act bites when a vehicle meets the definition of a "private fund" and accepts (or is ready to accept) investor commitments — registration with CIMA is required within a short window of first accepting capital, before the fund carries on business. The continuing obligations that follow are the substance of the regime: a prudent valuation of fund assets, safekeeping of fund assets (custody or title verification), cash monitoring, and identification of securities held — each performed by an appropriately independent person — plus the annual audit, return and registration fee. The full section-by-section text (definitions, registration, audit, the operational duties, offences and penalties) is searchable clause-by-clause through the site's regulation graph and ask-the-law.

The gotcha: registration is triggered by activity, not by a filing you get to schedule at leisure — accepting commitments before you are registered is the exposure. Scope the CIMA registration and the auditor appointment before the first close, not after.