ASIC: All regulated firms to meet industry funding requirements by September 27
As the deadline of September 27 approaches, ASIC reminds companies regulated in Australia to meet the industry funding requirements within the next three days.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), which regulates all financial markets companies in Australia, has today issued a notice for urgent action relating to the need to meet legal requirements relating to Australia’s new industry funding rules.
ASIC’s correspondence states that organisations and individuals regulated by ASIC must act by this Thursday 27 September to meet their legal obligations under new industry funding laws.
In April, FinanceFeeds reported that the Australian government had begun consulting on the next stage of the changes to the funding model of the ASIC, our report stating that the aim of the changes is to recognize that ASIC’s regulatory services primarily benefit the requesting entities, and as such the fees associated with the regulatory services will be cost recovered. The regulatory activities ASIC provides will no longer be taxpayer funded.
Between July and September 2018, all organisations that ASIC regulates became legally bound to log on to a new online ASIC portal to submit or validate their business activity metrics. In June, ASIC sent a letter to the person listed as the ASIC contact for each organisation, and the letter contained a unique security key for the portal and detailed information on the process.
Now, just three days remain before the deadline of having to complete this procedure for all ASIC regulated entities, and all firms that have the letter from ASIC should act now and follow the simple steps outlined to complete the process. Those that do not have their letter are still able to fulfill their obligations. ASIC’s website at www.asic.gov.au has the details on what they need to do by 27 September.
ASIC Commissioner Cathie Armour thanked the thousands of people who have already completed the process by stating “We are all settling in to this new funding model and your attention and time toward completing the process is appreciated,’ Cathie said. ‘The deadline is a few days away and we are urging the rest of our industry stakeholders to act now and complete the process online.”
ASIC will use the information in these submissions to calculate final invoices, and in future years, generate estimated levy amounts for the entire regulated population. The regualatory authority will publish its actual regulatory costs in November, along with population and business activity metric data provided by industry, which will enable entities to better estimate their individual levy.
This data requirement will enable ASIC to calculate each entity’s share of the 2017–18 regulatory costs. Final invoices for the 2017–18 financial year will be issued by ASIC in January 2019.
Indicative levies are estimates of ASIC’s cost recovery levies, based on the regulator’s budgeted allocation of regulatory costs for each financial year and estimates of the population and business activity metrics for each of the 48 subsectors to which levies apply. Indicative levies support the business planning and budgeting of ASIC’s regulated entities. ASIC maintains that this is in line with its objectives to improve cost transparency and accountability to industry.
The regulator stated that its forecast for the 2017–18 regulatory costs to be recovered by ASIC’s cost recovery levies is $238 million.
