A new Treasury financial services regulatory initiatives grid will work with ASIC to reduce compliance burdens for financial services firms.
It aims to ensure the standard business of regulation is carried out in a more coordinated way to make it “simpler and easier to do business in Australia”.
It will also seek to reduce compliance burden and costs by allowing entities to allocate their resources more efficiently when implementing regulation.
Modelled on the existing grid in place in the UK, it will be a rolling 24-month forward program, updated twice a year, of regulatory initiatives that will materially affect the financial sector. This will include proposed legislation, rules, and regulation and standard making, consultation processes, and data collection processes.
Looking at the UK’s version which began in April 2020, this covers regulatory initiatives for the subsequent two years and includes:
- Name, lead agency and links to public information on it.
- Estimates of operational impact (higher impact, lower impact or unknown impact).
- Any expected key milestone dates and any changes to these milestone dates.
- Whether the initiative is a newly announced initiative.
- Whether the initiative is expected to have a consumer impact to flag to consumer organisations.
The Australian grid will span initiatives from a number of agencies and regulators, such as ASIC, APRA, the Australian Taxation Office and Reserve Bank of Australia.
Minster for Financial Services, Stephen Jones, said: “The grid will give financial services providers – particularly medium-sized and smaller players – clear visibility of regulation that might impact their businesses and will support engagement with proposed reforms and their implementation.
“By engaging with industry, we believe we get better outcomes and that’s what this is all about – promoting transparency, collaboration and engagement with the private sector is an important part of our economy.
“A regulatory grid will help financial services businesses engage with the government and regulators more effectively and allow regulators to avoid duplication, build shared strategic priorities, and focus on how to best implement reforms.”
He confirmed Treasury will continue to engage with financial sector stakeholders in the development of the grid.
