Those within the financial services industry looking for a single regulator will be disappointed with the findings contained within a report generated by a working group made up of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
While those lobbying for a single regulator have pointed to bureaucratic overlap, the APRA ASIC Working Group report found little duplication actually existed, except in areas such as responsible persons.
However, the working group has identified some areas requiring change, and will recommend the introduction of a materiality test with respect to breach reporting to APRA, an alignment of the breach reporting periods for Australian Financial Services licensees and APRA-regulated entities, and removal of the requirement to report breaches to both regulators, with APRA in future being responsible.
The report said the potential to reduce audit reporting requirements for some entities would be assessed as part of the more detailed review of reporting obligations to be conducted this year.
