The Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Securities Commission of Malaysia and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand have signed an agreement that will ease the cross-border offering of collective investment schemes to retail investors in the three countries. 

Dubbed the ASEAN CIS Framework, the deal means that Singapore-based fund managers will be able to offer retail funds directly to investors in Thailand and Malaysia and vice versa under a streamlined process. This is without having to make significant modifications to the funds. To offer CIS to non-retail investors, the three countries agreed to provide mutual assistance to supervise the offerings. 

The framework is expected to be implemented by the first half of 2014.