The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has said it wants to encourage whistle-blowing in the financial services sector and expects the institutions it administers to provide similar encouragement.
APRA member, Steve Somogyi used an address dealing with reforms to the general insurance industry earlier this month to make clear the regulator’s position on corporate governance and particularly the “fit and proper person” test.
“APRA does want to encourage whistle-blowing and expects insurers to encourage this too,” he said. “What the (fit and proper) standards will do is require various steps to remove disincentives or obstacles to whistle-blowers,” he said
Somogyi said that while APRA recognised that institutions whose responsible persons were subject to other similar regulatory tests would already have processes in place, these might not always be relevant to APRA.
“The institution must be satisfied that an assessment process meets APRA’s requirements so some supplementation or variation of existing processes may be needed,” he said.
Somogyi said that APRA had sought to minimise duplication with a number of other legal requirements such as the Corporations Act and the Privacy Act.
