The major financial institutions currently hosting Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) personnel as part of the regulator’s “close and continuous monitoring” regime now know how they will pay for the privilege.
The Assistant Treasurer, Stuart Robert announced that the Government was amending the regulatory framework to create a new sub-sector within (ASIC’s) industry funding model to allow it recover regulatory costs associated with the close and continuous monitoring regime.
Robert announced the moves part of a broader range of changes which he claimed would reduce and remove fees for accessing certain information from ASIC’s online registries.
He said this would improve transparency and reduce the burden on individuals and businesses that needed to access this information.
“Amendments are also being made to ASIC’s industry funding model to ensure that it is reflective of ASIC’s regulatory effort,” he said.
“From 1 July 2019:
- To facilitate free access to important information about companies and financial service providers, journalists will be exempted from paying certain registry fees. ASIC will issue guidance material on the exemption and access process.
- Search fees for accessing company roles and relationship extracts will be reduced from $40 to $19.
- A new sub-sector will be established under ASIC’s Industry Funding Model to allow ASIC to recover the regulatory costs incurred from its close and continuous monitoring of Australia’s largest institutions.
From 1 April 2019, a number of other minor amendments to address definitional and fee errors will apply to ensure ASIC’s fees-for-services reflect ASIC’s regulatory costs.”
