Reporting Requirements for Dealings with Unauthorised Foreign Insurers and in Atypical Risks - Draft Regulations

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Abstract:

On 8 April 2008, the then Assistant Treasurer announced the limited exemption arrangements that would apply under the Financial Sector Legislation Amendment (Discretionary Mutual Funds and Direct Offshore Foreign Insurers) Act 2007. The then Assistant Treasurer also announced that data would be collected from insurance intermediaries holding Australian Financial Services Licenses (AFSLs) in relation to business placed with unauthorised foreign insurers and discretionary mutual funds to monitor the exemption arrangements.

Following consultations on the data collection arrangements conducted in 2008, it is now proposed to expand reporting requirements in relation to business placed with unauthorised foreign insurers from those originally envisaged. Aggregate data will now be collected on all insurance contracts entered into during a reporting period with Australian Prudential Regulation Authority authorised general insurers, Lloyds underwriters and unauthorised foreign insurers. Transaction level data will also be collected on dealings with unauthorised foreign insurers and in atypical risks.

An exposure draft of the regulations and explanatory material, which supersede those issued for consultation on 29 May 2008, set out the revised proposed reporting requirements in relation to insurance contracts.

It has also been decided not to proceed with an ongoing data collection from insurance intermediaries in relation to discretionary mutual funds (DMF) products. Data is currently being collected from DMFs under the Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Act 2001. To ensure that all DMFs are providing data, a separate data collection will be conducted seeking information from licensees that are authorised to deal in 'miscellaneous financial risk' products about DMFs they have dealt with.

Making a submission

Interested parties are invited to comment on the draft regulations and explanatory material. While submissions may be lodged electronically, by post or by facsimile, electronic lodgment is preferred. For accessibility reasons, please submit responses sent via email in a Word or RTF format. An additional PDF version may also be submitted.

All information (including name and address details) contained in submissions will be made available to the public on the Treasury website unless you indicate that you would like all or part of your submission to remain in confidence.  Automatically generated confidentiality statements in emails do not suffice for this purpose.  Respondents who would like part of their submission to remain in confidence should provide this information marked as such in a separate attachment.  A request made under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Commonwealth) for a submission marked 'confidential' to be made available will be determined in accordance with that Act.

Closing date for submissions: Thursday, 8 October 2009

Address written submissions to:
Manager
Insurance Markets Unit
Financial System Division
The Treasury
Langton Crescent
PARKES  ACT  2600

Facsimile: (02) 6263 3866

Email:  UFIdata@treasury.gov.au

For enquiries, please call Caroline Walker on (02) 6263 3886 or Tim Andri on (02) 6263 3969

Documents Available:

 Acrobat (PDF)

 Microsoft Word (RTF)

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