Explanatory Statement
STATUTORY RULES 1984, NO. 87
ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE TREASURER
FINANCIAL CORPORATIONS ACT 1974
FINANCIAL CORPORATIONS (STATISTICS) REGULATIONS
Section 32 of the Financial Corporations Act 1974 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing all matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed, or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act. Section 11 of the Act provides for the making of regulations to require a corporation registered under the Act to furnish to the Reserve Bank and/or the Statistician, statements setting out such information relating to the business of the corporation as is provided for in the regulations.
Under the proposed regulations statistics currently collected under the Act and published in the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) publication “Financial Corporations, Australia” (ABS Cat. No. 5617.0) will be replaced by a series of collections that have been tailored to the operations of corporations within each category provided in the Act ie Building Societies, Credit Co-operatives, Authorised Money Market Dealers, Money Market Corporations, Pastoral Finance Companies, Finance Companies, General Financiers, Retailers, Intra-Group Financiers, and Other financial corporations. The forms contained in the proposed regulations are designed to collect structural data (selected liabilities and assets) and financial operations data (lending commitments, borrowing facilities, and interest rates).
The collection of data under the Act will form part of a statistical package for the collection of information from financial institutions, and is a result of a review conducted by the Treasury, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Reserve Bank of all statistics collected from financial institutions. As a result of the rationalised collection of statistics there will be increased availability of data, reduction in burden upon respondents, and consistency of data definitions and concepts across collections.
The proposed regulations will provide for a new method of collecting statistical data and for the repeal of existing provisions. Details of the proposed regulations are as follows:
PART I - PRELIMINARY
Regulation 1 provides the short citation of the regulations.
Regulation 2 provides that Parts I, II and V and the Schedule to the Regulations are to come into operation on 1 June 1984 and the remaining provisions on 1 July 1984.
Regulation 3 provides the interpretation of the regulations.
PART II - PERIODIC STATEMENTS RELATED TO STATISTICAL PERIODS
Regulation 4 defines those corporations which will be required to submit monthly statistical returns as being all building societies, authorised money market dealers, money market corporations, pastoral finance companies, finance companies and those credit co-operatives and general financiers with assets exceeding $5 million.
Regulation 5 provides that for the purpose of section 11 of the Act, credit co-operatives and general financiers are required to inform the Reserve Bank within 30 days from the time their assets exceed $5 million.
Regulation 6 provides that corporations to which Part II applies are allowed 21 days from the end of the monthly reporting period to furnish to the Reserve Bank and the Statistician their statistical return on the form appropriate to the category in which the corporation is registered.
Regulation 7 allows corporations to take advantage of consolidation provisions available under the Act. That is, related corporations within the same category, and reporting at the same frequency, would have the option to submit a consolidated group return. This option is expected to significantly reduce the number of statistical returns submitted.
PART III - QUARTERLY STATEMENTS
Regulation 8 defines those corporations which will be required to submit quarterly statistical returns as being intra-group financiers, other financial corporations and those credit co-operatives and general financiers with assets not exceeding $5 million.
Regulation 9 provides that for the purpose of section 11 of the Act credit co-operatives and general financiers are required to inform the Reserve Bank that their assets are less than $5 million.
Regulation 10 provides that corporations to which Part III applies are allowed 21 days from the end of the quarterly reporting period to furnish to the Reserve Bank and the Statistician their statistical return on the form appropriate to the category in which the corporation is registered.
Regulation 11 allows corporations to which Part III applies the same consolidation provisions as provided in Regulation 7.
PART IV - SIX MONTHLY STATEMENTS
Regulation 12 limits the application of Part IV to retailers.
Regulation 13 provides that retailers are allowed 21 days from the end of the six-monthly reporting period to furnish to the Reserve Bank and the Statistician their statistical return.
Regulation 14 allows retailers the same consolidation provisions as provided in Regulation 7.
PART V - MISCELLANEOUS
Regulation 15 provides for the repeal of the previous regulations.
Regulation 16 notes exceptions where the previous regulations are not repealed until 1 July 1984. The purpose of these exceptions is to ensure that those corporations whose reporting frequency is being changed (eg those which are currently reporting on a monthly basis but under the new arrangements will report on a quarterly basis) will still be required to submit a return under the previous regulations for the month of June 1984 to complete the statistical series for 1983/84.
The Schedule to the regulations prescribes the forms on which the returns are to be made.
CANBERRA ACT