Licensee regulations cleaned-up
The corporate regulator has released two new regulatory guides detailing the general obligations of Australian Financial Services (AFS) licensees under section 912A of the Corporations Act in an effort to consolidate, improve and clarify regulations.
Regulatory Guide 104, Licensing: Meeting the General Obligations, and Regulatory Guide 105, Licensing: Organisational Competence, are part of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s (ASIC) Better Regulation initiatives.
The regulatory guides are designed to clearly and concisely communicate ASIC’s policy on the general obligations of licensees and organisational competence and consolidate, harmonise and clarify ASIC’s policy in these areas.
The new guides supersede Regulatory Guide 164, Licensing: Organisational Capacities, and Regulatory Guide 130, Managed Investments: Licensing. The changes take effect immediately, however ASIC appreciates that licensees will need time to update their internal policies and procedures.
ASIC has indicated that it will not automatically refuse AFS licence applications and variation applications that refer to the now obsolete regulatory guides, but it expects all future applications to refer to the new guides. Further information on how to apply for an AFS licence or licence variation can be found in the AFS Licensing Kit (Regulatory Guides 1-3).
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