Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (confidentiality)
determination No. 16 of 2009
EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Prepared by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA)
Australian Prudential Regulation Authority Act 1998 (APRA Act), s 57
The purpose of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (confidentiality) determination No. 16 of 2009 (the Variation) made on 7 October 2009 is to rectify a drafting oversight in Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (confidentiality) determination No. 11 of 2009 (the Determination).
Legislative background
Subsection 56(5C) of the APRA Act provides that it is not an offence against s 56(2) of that Act (APRA’s secrecy provision) to disclose information in a reporting document given to APRA under s 13 of the Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Act 2001 (Collection of Data Act) where APRA has determined, under s 57, that the document does not contain confidential information.
Section 57 of the APRA Act gives APRA the power to determine whether a document given under s 13 of the Collection of Data Act contains confidential information. The section provides that before doing so APRA must give relevant entities or bodies, or their representative association, a reasonable opportunity to make representations as to whether information of the kind contained in the document is confidential, and APRA must take such representations into account.
Information covered by the Variation
By the Determination made on 14 August 2009, APRA had determined that certain information provided by trustees to APRA under reporting forms SRF 200.0, SRF 210.0, SRF 210.1, SRF 230.0, SRF 240.0 and SRF 250.0 (the reporting forms) do not contain confidential information. Part 1 of the Schedule to the Determination describes the reporting forms as made under Reporting Standards SRS 200.0 (2005), SRS 210.0 (2005), SRS 210.1 (2005), SRS 230.0 (2005), SRS 240.0 (2005) and SRS 250.0 (2005) (the 2005 Reporting Standards).
Each of the 2005 Reporting Standards consolidated (with no substantive changes) a previous reporting standard of the same name and number (the previous reporting standard) in operation at the time as amended in 2004 by the Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Determination No. 7 of 2004. Reporting forms made under each of the 2005 Reporting Standards, which were in use for reporting periods ending on or after 30 June 2005, are substantially the same and have the same name and number as the reporting forms made under the previous reporting standards.
The Variation varies the Determination by clarifying that information provided under the reporting forms for reporting periods ending between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2008 is covered by the Determination where the reporting forms were made under the 2005 Reporting Standards or the previous reporting standards.
The 2005 Reporting Standards and previous reporting standards apply to all superannuation entities other than small APRA funds, self-managed superannuation funds and single member approved deposit funds.
Consultation
APRA had undertaken substantial consultation prior to making the Determination. During the consultation process, APRA advised that it was proposing to release information submitted to APRA under the reporting forms for reporting periods ending between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2008.
On this basis, no further consultation was undertaken for the purposes of the Variation.