The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) have published new information to help insurers and superannuation trustees prepare for the commencement of the Financial Accountability Regime (FAR).
The FAR already applies to the banking industry, and takes effect for the insurance and superannuation industries from 15 March 2025. It imposes a strengthened responsibility and accountability framework to improve the risk governance cultures of APRA-regulated entities, their directors and most senior executives.
New information in today's package includes:
- an amendment to the Regulator rules, which prescribes key functions information for inclusion in the FAR register of accountable persons for insurance and superannuation industries; see Financial Accountability Regime Regulator Rules Amendment Instrument No. 1 of 2024 and Financial Accountability Regime Act (Information for register) Regulator Rules 2024; and
- a joint ASIC and APRA letter summarising key issues raised during consultation and their response, including the concept and application of key functions.
The package updates previously released information to reflect the final Regulator rules, including:
- an updated information paper to assist entities and their accountable persons in understanding and complying with their obligations under the FAR, with changes made to reflect the final list of key functions and their descriptions;
- an updated accountability statement guide and template to help entities subject to the FAR enhanced notification obligations to prepare accountability statements; and
- reporting form instructions to assist insurance and superannuation entities in providing the required information to ASIC and APRA.
The release of these materials follows a joint public consultation on the draft amendment to the Regulator rules and draft key functions descriptions for the insurance and superannuation industries.
Guidance materials for the new information package are available at: Financial Accountability Regime on ASIC's and APRA's websites. For the Regulators' response and non-confidential submissions to the consultation, please refer to the FAR consultation page.
This information completes the total package of FAR guidance materials.
Further details on proposed industry engagements and implementation timeframes are available on the new FAR implementation for insurance and superannuation entities page on APRA's website.
