Issue 542, 26 June 2014
In this issue:
- Section 29QB: ASIC’s 1 July 2014 expectations
Section 29QB: ASIC’s 1 July 2014 expectations
Under section 29QB of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993, Registrable Superannuation Entity (RSE) licensees are required to make publicly available on the fund’s website, and keep up to date at all times, the details and remuneration of executive officers and individual trustees, and information and documents relevant to the superannuation fund.
As mentioned in ASFA Action issue 541 (dated 18 June 2014), ASIC has released Class Order 14/509, which provides RSE licensees with a ‘safe harbour’ so that, if they update their websites within the timeframes prescribed, they will be taken to comply with the updating obligations under section 29QB. Generally, remuneration information must be updated within four months of the trigger event, and all other information within twenty days of the trigger event.
ASFA has been discussing with ASIC what disclosure it expects to see on websites on 1 July 2014. We have been informed of the following by ASIC:
- In regards to remuneration disclosure, if an RSE licensee has a financial year end of 30 June, ASIC expects all of the remuneration information to be posted by the end of October 2014, although RSE licensees can post this information earlier. In regards to RSE licensees that have a financial year end of 31 December, ASIC has indicated that it expects those RSE licensees to have the previous year’s remuneration information online on 1 July 2014.
- In regards to the other information that needs to be posted online under section 29QB, the 20 day trigger is slightly more complicated. In some instances, it will be 20 business days from 1 July 2014 (for example, summaries of significant event notices, Australian Business Numbers for outsourced service providers) as there are transitional arrangements for these items. Then there are items where the trigger has not yet occurred (for example, financial statements where the trigger is when the statement is lodged with ASIC or first provided to a member). Mostly, however, for the rest of the information (copies of trust deeds, governing rules and so on), ASIC expects to see these items posted on the fund’s website from 1 July 2014 as, in ASIC’s view, the industry has had sufficient time before 1 July 2014 to prepare for this.
ASIC has confirmed that it will be taking a facilitative approach to enforcing these requirements where RSE licensees are making a reasonable effort to comply.
