Issue 736, 10 February 2020
In this issue:
- Eligible rollover funds: bill to facilitate closure
- Stronger regulators: implementation of ASIC Enforcement Review Taskforce report
- APRA data collection: changes for the replacement of AUSkey
- APRA data collection: extension of dates for pilot data and submission
Eligible rollover funds: bill to facilitate closure
As foreshadowed in December (see ASFA Action issue 731), the Government has introduced into Parliament a bill to facilitate the exit of eligible rollover funds (ERFs) from the superannuation industry by 30 June 2021.
Under amendments set out in the Treasury Laws Amendment (Reuniting More Superannuation) Bill 2020:
- ERFs will be required to transfer the balance of all accounts less than $6,000 on 1 June 2020 to the ATO by 30 June 2020
- the balance of all remaining accounts held by ERFs must be transferred to the ATO by 30 June 2021
- ERFs will be able to voluntarily report and pay the balance of the account to the ATO from 1 June 2020 up until the day when the statement and payment is due
- Where the ATO receives an amount from an ERF, it will be able to proactively reunite the amount where the member has an active account
- superannuation funds and retirement savings account providers will be prevented from transferring new amounts to ERFs from the later of seven days after Royal Assent or 1 May 2020
- applications to operate a new ERF cannot be made from the day after Royal Assent.
The proposed amendments are consistent with the Productivity Commission’s recommendation, in its report Superannuation: Assessing Efficiency and Competitiveness, that ERFs be wound up within three years.
Stronger regulators: implementation of ASIC Enforcement Review Taskforce report
A bill to implement 16 recommendations from the ASIC Enforcement Review Taskforce Report has been passed by Parliament.
The Financial Sector Reform (Hayne Royal Commission Response—Stronger Regulators (2019 Measures)) Bill 2019, introduced in late November, was passed without amendment.
The Bill implements measures to:
- harmonise ASIC’s search warrant powers;
- improve ASIC’s ability to access certain telecommunications information to investigate and prosecute serious offences;
- strengthen ASIC’s licensing powers;
- extend ASIC’s banning powers to ban individuals from managing financial services businesses.
See ASFA Action issue 729 for background.
The amendments are intended to apply the day after the Act receives Royal Assent.
APRA data collection: changes for the replacement of AUSkey
In December, we reported that APRA will be making changes to its existing data collection system, Direct to APRA (D2A) and the APRA Extranet ahead of the decommissioning of AUSkey on 31 March, and regulated entities—including registrable superannuation entity licensees—would need to take steps in February and March to ensure continued access to APRA systems (see ASFA Action issue 731).
APRA has now released instructions for entities to update Direct to APRA (D2A) to replace AUSkey with myGovID and Relationship Authorisation Manager (RAM). All entities who use D2A must ensure the update is successfully completed before AUSkey is decommissioned at the end of March 2020.
Users of the APRA Extranet must also set up their myGovID and ensure they are authorised in RAM. The Extranet login link for myGovID will be available in March 2020.
Further information about the transition is available on the APRA website, while the ATO website has more information about myGovID and RAM.
APRA data collection: extension of dates for pilot data and submission
As advised in ASFA Action issue 732, on 19 December 2019 APRA released the second tranche of topic papers for phase 1 of its Superannuation Data Transformation project, dealing with performance and member accounts.
APRA has advised that the due date has been extended to 28 February for submission of the pilot data for Draft Reporting Standards:
- SRS 611.0 Member Accounts
- RS 705.0 Components of Net Return
- SRS 705.1 Investment Performance and Objectives
In line with this, the deadline for submissions on the proposed changes has also been extended to 28 February.
APRA has advised that the extension was communicated to funds by email when it sent a reminder for the release 1 pilot data but its website has not yet been updated to reflect this change.
ASFA REGULATORY WATCHLIST
ASFA’s Regulatory Watchlist (ARW) tracks developments in Legislation, inquiries, consultations
and other regulatory announcements relevant to superannuation.
