- On 19 August 2013, ASIC issued a media release announcing the release of Consultation Paper 215 titled, Assessment and approval of training courses for financial product advisers: Updated to RG 146. ASIC outlined that, "prior to the ASIC Training Register being placed under review, approved training courses which met the requirements in Regulatory Guide 146 Licensing: Training of financial product advisers were assessed by an authorised assessor and listed on the ASIC Training Register."Consultation Paper 215 proposes that "courses will no longer need to be listed on the ASIC Training Register. Instead, it is proposed that authorised assessors will assess training courses to determine if they meet the training standards in RG 1." Submissions are being accepted by ASIC until 30 September 2013.
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On 21 August 2013, APRA released its Annual Regulatory Plan for 2013-2014. The Regulatory Plan identifies that APRA intends to undertake the following activities with respect to the superannuation industry:
- continue to review a prudential framework for the supervision of Level 3 groups;
- develop guidance on good practice for operational risk management;
- undertake a cross industry review of APRA's current attestations regime;
- develop guidance on good practice to manage data risk; and
- introduce new superannuation reporting standards to collect data on behalf of the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
- APRA has now released a new Infringement Notices Register. The Register records any infringement notices paid for breaches of requirements under the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 and the Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Act 2001. On 1 July APRA released Infringement Notices Guidelines, which provide background information and outline APRA's approach to issuing infringement notices.
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On 22 August 2013 APRA updated its website to include three new FAQs on MySuper. The FAQs are as follows:
- FAQ 57: What categories of fees must, if imposed in a MySuper environment, be set at a level that is no greater than a cost recovery basis?
- FAQ 58: How can an RSE licensee charge buy-sell spreads, switching fees, exit fees, activity fees and insurance fees on a cost recovery basis to MySuper members if the activity is performed by an outsourced provider and the charge to the RSE licensee in relation to the activity is embedded with an aggregate fee?
- FAQ 59: Can an RSE licensee introduce buy-sell spreads, switching fees, exit fees, activity fees and insurance fees on a cost recovery basis to a MySuper product without a corresponding reduction to the administration and/or investment fee charged to members?