Australian regulator ASIC has released a suite of seven new and updated regulatory guides to provide comprehensive guidance to the funds management industry. The guidance has been updated for changes arising from the Asia Region Funds Passport and brings all of ASIC’s funds management policies up to date to help promote industry-wide consistency.
The updates are designed to help the funds management industry to access the Asia Region Funds Passport. The passport is designed to provide investors with access to funds from participating economies throughout the Asia region.
The new and updated regulatory guides are:
- Regulatory Guide 131 Funds management: Establishing and registering a fund (RG 131)
- Regulatory Guide 132 Funds management: Compliance and oversight (RG 132)
- Regulatory Guide 133 Funds management and custodial services: Holding assets (RG 133)
- Regulatory Guide 134 Funds management: Constitutions (RG 134)
- Regulatory Guide 136 Funds management: Discretionary powers (RG 136)
- Regulatory Guide 137 Constitution requirements for schemes registered before 1 October 2013 (RG 137), and
- Regulatory Guide 138 Foreign passport funds (RG 138).
The updates are comprehensive, including both administrative and substantive issues. Inclusions that may be particularly helpful to the funds management industry include:
- providing information on ASIC’s decision-making process for registering a managed investment scheme or passport fund
- providing good practice examples and case studies on a range of compliance issues, including previous ASIC decisions on relief.
Further, RG 132 has guidance on compliance management systems consistent with Australian Standard AS ISO 19600:2015: Compliance management systems—Guidelines (AS ISO 19600:2015). This guidance is not mandatory, although the funds management industry generally already complies with AS ISO 19600:2015. The changes outline the type of compliance management system we believe can be adopted to enhance compliance with legal and regulatory obligations.
The legal requirements for the contents of a registered scheme’s compliance plan and its audit have not changed. Our guidance in RG 132 sets out our current view of these requirements. The updates do not include changes arising from corporate collective investment vehicles (CCIVs), as the legislation has not yet passed through Parliament. ASIC will review and re-release these seven regulatory guides to include material for the new CCIV regime after this regime is implemented into Australian law.
ASIC has informed that it will make a range of less substantive amendments to other regulatory guides. These amendments will reflect the consequential amendments that will be made to the Corporations Act to accommodate these new regimes.
The official announcement can be seen here.