An appraisal of Australia’s corporate collective investment vehicles

On 1 July 2022 Australia introduced a new corporate form: the corporate collective investment vehicle (CCIV). Collective investment vehicles allow passive investors to pool their funds and have those funds managed and invested by a professional funds manager. CCIVs were introduced in Australia in response to the perception that Australia's existing collective investment vehicle, a managed investment scheme structured as a unit trust, was not sufficiently competitive in the international market because of its unfamiliarity to foreign investors. As such, CCIVs were designed to work with the new Asia Region Funds Passport regime to facilitate the marketing of Australian-run collective investment schemes to foreign investors. However, CCIVs have experienced slow uptake in the time since their introduction, and it is unclear whether their design responds to market needs. As such, this article examines the rationale for the introduction of CCIVs, how these vehicles operate in practice and how they compare with international alternatives. It looks at possible reasons for the slow uptake of the vehicle and lends support to a suggestion that the Australian government continue to expand its suite of collective investment vehicles if it wants to capitalise on the possibility of becoming a leading foreign investment jurisdiction.