Scepticism over the idea of a pan-Asia fund passport has been around for years and remains strong despite the fact a passporting initiative backed by six jurisdictions across Asia is starting to take shape. Industry participants say tax issues and the lack of a common currency, among other things, will limit the potential of such a regime.

The Asia Region Funds Passport (ARFP), an initiative that presently involves six markets – Australia, South Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, is aiming for implementation in 2016. A public consultation paper on the planned regime was launched last month.

While this sounds promising on paper – potentially letting managers transpose eligible products in one of those six markets to the others under a streamlined procedure – it remains to be seen whether there is actual demand for such an arrangement.