The Australian PrudentialRegulation Authority (APRA) is becoming larger and more expensive to run as it seeks to pursue a tougher and more exacting supervisory regime.
What is more, the financial services industry should brace itself for a regulator with even larger budgets and more staff in coming years.
That is the bottom line of APRA’s latest annual report, which reveals that staff numbers within the regulator have grown from 396 in 2001-02 to be 589 this financial year, and that its expenditure has grown by nearly 40 per cent over the same period from $52.5 million to an expected $92.1 million.
The annual report makes clear that the trend in both staff numbers and expenditure can be expected to continue through the current financial year.
The good news for the Government contained in the APRA annual report is that the regulator has proved to be largely self-funding in recent years, having collected $97.1 million in levies in 2004-05 compared with a plan of $96.8 million, with net revenue of $83 million compared with an original budget of $80.7 billion.
APRA’s chairman, said the regulator had been building-up its staff numbers to improve its supervision of large and complex financial institutions, where resources had been lacking.
“Despite a fiercely competitive market for financial and risk management skills, APRA has attracted experienced staff from industry and the professions into front-line supervision positions and into its specialist risk, industry and technical areas,” he said.
Dealing with the superannuation sector, Laker said the two major planks in the Government’s reforms to superannuation safety “are in, or are moving into place”.
“Operating requirements and standards in areas such as risk management and fitness and propriety have been upgraded and the transition to the comprehensive licensing regime is underway,” he said. “APRA has been geared up for this latter task for some time and has consulted extensively on licensing requirements with trustees and industry groups.
“To date, however, applications have been slow to arrive. APRA has discretion to close the licensing window before the two-year transition period ends on 30 June, 2006, so that it can process any late rush of applications. Tardy trustees face a real risk of missing the cut,” Laker said.
