Regulations made simpler for foreign managers
By Liam Egan
The Australian Securitiesand Investments Commission (ASIC) has revised its policy statement PS 176 to make it easier for wholesale foreign financial services providers (FFSPs) to operate in the Australian market.
PS 176 governs ASIC’s powers under the Corporations Act 2001 to provide relief from the financial services licensing regime (FSRA) for FFSPs that are regulated by overseas regulatory authorities.
ASIC can provide this relief under PS 176 where an FFSP can satisfy that regulation by its overseas regulatory authority is sufficiently equivalent to regulation by ASIC, and where there is effective co-operation between ASIC and that overseas regulatory authority.
The revisions are part of ASIC’s “ongoing facilitation of the provision of financial services in Australia by FFSPs”, according to ASIC’s director of regulatory policy Mark Adams.
“They will help FFSPs which wish to make an application for relief to ASIC under PS 176 and also assist FFSPs that have already been given relief under the policy,” Adams said.
“They make the ongoing compliance burden of the latter FFSPs much simpler by enabling them to more easily comply with their notification requirements under PS 176.”
He said the revisions were introduced to “reflect and clarify” how PS 176 should apply under amendments to the law made by the Financial Services Reform Amendment Act 2003.
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