As the financial sector waits for the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) to fully awaken the Banking Executive Accountability Regime (BEAR) through the provision of further guidelines, there is already a lot of chatter as to whether BEAR should be extended beyond its initial coverage of APRA-regulated Authorised Deposit-taking Institutions (ADIs).
The Parliamentary Joint Committee
APRA’s discussion paper and proposed new APS 120 provide some welcome clarification and concessions for Australian market participants. Released on Thursday 26 November 2015, the proposals will be open for comment until 1 March 2016. The proposed effective date for these rules in 1 January 2018.
Amongst the more important proposals are:
De-facto master trust
On 2 February 2015, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (“ASIC”) issued a class exemption which seeks to provide guidance to foreign entities about when they will be regarded as having “entered into” an OTC derivative in Australia for the purposes of the ASIC Derivative Transaction Rules (Reporting) 2013 (“Australian DTRs”), as such OTC derivatives