Financial Sector (Collection of Data) (reporting standard) determination No. 100 of 2013
EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Prepared by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA)
Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Act 2001, sections 13 and 15
Acts Interpretation Act 1901, section 33
Under subsection 13(1) of the Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Act 2001 (the Act), APRA has the power to determine reporting standards, in writing, with which financial sector entities must comply. Such standards relate to reporting financial or accounting data and other information regarding the business or activities of the entities. Subsection 33(3) of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 provides that where an Act confers a power to issue an instrument the power shall, unless the contrary intention appears, be construed as including a power exercisable in the like manner and subject to the like conditions (if any) to revoke any such instrument.
On 5 December 2013, APRA made Financial Sector (Collection of Data) (reporting standard) determination No. 100 of 2013 (the instrument) which revokes Reporting Standard SRS 703.0 Fees Disclosed made under Financial Sector (Collection of Data) (reporting standard) determination No. 99 of 2013 and determines a new version of Reporting Standard SRS 703.0 Fees Disclosed (SRS 703.0) which defers the date from which the reporting obligations first begin to apply.
The instrument commences on the day after it is registered.
- Background
SRS 703.0, which was scheduled to commence on 31 December 2013, collects information related to fees and costs that are required to be disclosed on a Product Disclosure Statement (PDS).
2. Purpose and operation of the instrument
The purpose of the instrument is to change the date from which the reporting obligations apply under SRS 703.0 from 31 December 2013 to 1 July 2014. It does this by revoking the existing version of the reporting standard and replacing it with a new version under which the reporting obligations commence from the later date.
Changes to disclosure with respect to fees and costs information in product disclosure statements for a superannuation product were made by items 7 to 68 and 70 to 86 of Schedule 1 of the Superannuation Legislation Amendment (MySuper Measures) Regulation 2013, which was made on 28 June 2013. The changes to disclosure were scheduled to come into effect on 31 December 2013. SRS 703.0 is drafted on the basis of the fee definitions and categories as amended by that Regulation and assumes that those amended PDS requirements are in place.
Feedback from superannuation industry associations expressed concern that compliance with the new PDS requirements by 31 December 2013 would result in significant compliance costs and impose unreasonable burdens on RSE licensees.
As a result of this feedback, on 5 December 2013, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) made Class Order [CO 13/1534] under subsection 1020F(1) of the Corporations Act 2001 (the Corporations Act). Subsection 1020F(1) of the Act provides that ASIC may exempt a class of persons from all or specified provisions of Part 7.9 of the Act.
The class order extends the date of compliance from 31 December 2013 to 1 July 2014.
The deferral of the commencement date for the disclosure requirements means that the commencement of SRS 703.0 must also be deferred. Failure to defer the commencement of the reporting standard would result in RSE licensees being required to submit a ‘nil return’ (i.e. a reporting form containing only zeros, not useful data) for both the original initial submission due on 28 January 2014 and the subsequent first annual submission due on 27 July 2014.
3. Consultation
ASIC undertook public consultation on its decision to defer the commencement of the requirements to disclose fees and costs for superannuation products. As the instrument defers the existing requirements, and SRS 703.0 is dependent on RSE licensees complying with their obligations under the amended PDS regime to disclose this fees and costs information, APRA did not consider that specific consultation on the operation of SRS 703.0 was required.
4. Regulation Impact Statement
The Office of Best Practice Regulation has advised that a Regulation Impact Statement is not required for this legislative instrument.
5. Statement of compatibility prepared in accordance with Part 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011
A Statement of compatibility prepared in accordance with Part 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011 is provided at Attachment A to this Explanatory Statement.
ATTACHMENT A
Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights
Prepared in accordance with Part 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011
Financial Sector (Collection of Data) (reporting standard) determination No. 100 of 2013
This Legislative Instrument is compatible with the human rights and freedoms recognised or declared in the international instrument listed in section 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011 (HRPS Act).
Overview of the Legislative Instrument
The purpose of making this Legislative Instrument is to defer the commencement of new reporting standard in relation to RSE licensees, to align the reporting obligation with the commencement of related disclosure requirements by ASIC.
Human rights implications
APRA has assessed the Legislative Instrument against the international instruments listed in section 3 of the HRPS Act and determined that only Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is conceivably of relevance to the Legislative Instrument.
Article 17 of the ICCPR prohibits the arbitrary or unlawful interference with a person’s privacy, family, home and correspondence, and attacks on reputation. Article 17 is exclusively concerned with prohibiting interference with the privacy and/or reputation of individual persons. It does not extend to the privacy and/or reputation of corporate entities.
The Legislative Instrument will facilitate the disclosure of specific information provided to APRA by RSE licensees in accordance with the reporting standard. The information required by the reporting standard is information that is otherwise publicly disclosed. As the reporting standard does not require the submission of personal information, there are no human rights implications.
Consequently, the Legislative Instrument does not engage any of the applicable rights or freedoms recognised or declared in the international instruments listed in section 3 of the HRPS Act. Accordingly, in APRA’s assessment, the Legislative Instrument is compatible with human rights.