ASIC has released the indicative levy amounts for the 2021-22 financial year. The draft Cost Recovery Implementation Statement (CRIS) details ASIC's costs and how these costs are allocated to participants in the financial services and credit industries. We encourage all AFSL and ACL holders to:
- review the CRIS for their estimated levy; and
- update their cashflow projections and budgets in anticipation of the invoice from ASIC in January 2023.
How much are you likely to pay?
|
Corporate Subsectors |
Budgeted cost recovery amount ($ in Millions) |
Number of Entities |
Indicative minimum levy/flat levy ($) |
Levy Metric Description |
|
AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL SERVICES LICENCES (AFSLs) |
||||
|
Retail OTC Derivatives Issuers |
10.658 |
98 |
108,755 |
Number of days AFS licensee was authorised to provide financial service in the leviable financial year |
|
Payment Product Providers |
2.291 |
665 |
2,000 plus $2.20 per $10,000 of total revenue from payment product provider activity |
Revenue from payment product provider activity |
|
Risk Management Product Providers |
0.598 |
69 |
8,664 |
Number of days AFS licensee was authorised to provide financial service in the leviable financial year |
|
Margin Lender |
0.002 |
23 |
93 |
Number of days AFS licensee was authorised to provide financial service in the leviable financial year |
|
Securities Dealer |
1.765 |
1,109 |
1,000 plus $3.77 per $1 million of annual transaction turnover |
Annual transaction turnover value |
|
Responsible Entities |
20.749 |
426 |
7,000 plus $10.85 per $1 million of assets above the $10 million threshold |
Adjusted total assets and number of days AFS licensee was authorised to provide financial service in the leviable financial year |
|
Wholesale Trustees |
5.790 |
1,783 |
1,000 plus $4.91 per $1 million of adjusted total assets |
Adjusted total assets and number of days AFS licensee was authorised to provide financial service in the leviable financial year |
|
Custodians |
0.138 |
1,249 |
110 |
Flat Levy |
|
Financial Advice Providers – AFS licensees authorised to provide personal advice to retail clients on relevant products |
24.012 |
2,759 |
1,500 plus $1,142 per adviser |
Adjusted number of advisers on ASIC's Financial Adviser Register and number of days authorised to provide financial services in the leviable financial year |
|
Financial Advice Providers – AFS licensees authorised to provide personal advice to retail clients, only on products that are not relevant products |
0.066 |
557 |
118 |
Number of days AFS licensee was authorised to provide financial service in the leviable financial year |
|
Financial Advice Providers – AFS licensees authorised to provide general financial product advice only |
0.505 |
1,039 |
486 |
Number of days AFS licensee was authorised to provide financial service in the leviable financial year |
|
Financial Advice Providers – AFS licensees authorised to provide personal advice to wholesale clients only |
0.035 |
1,742 |
20 |
Flat Levy |
|
AUSTRALIAN CREDIT LICENCES (ACLs) |
||||
|
Credit Providers – all |
34.613 |
1,064 |
2,000 plus $0.52 per $10,000 of credit provided above $100 million (for other than small or medium amount credit contracts) |
Credit provided in the leviable financial year (contracts other than small or medium amount credit contracts) |
|
Credit Providers – small and medium amount credit providers |
5.033 |
227 |
$38.49 per $10,000 of credit provided under small or medium amount credit contracts |
Credit provided in the leviable financial year under small and medium amount credit contracts |
|
Credit intermediaries |
10.897 |
4,413 |
1,000 plus $171.97 per credit representative |
Credit representatives and number of days authorised in the leviable year |
What do the levies pay for?
ASIC expects that $332.3 million of its total budgeted resources will be recovered by the cost recovery levies and statutory industry levies.
For most AFSL holders, the indicative levies are lower than the actual levies for the 2020-21 financial year. For credit providers, the indicative levies show a small increase. The draft CRIS notes that its key priorities over the 2021-22 financial year are split into two categories: external priorities and internal priorities.
ASIC's external priorities include:
- promoting economic recovering, including through more efficient regulation, facilitating innovation and targeting enforcement action to areas of harm;
- reducing the risk of harm to consumers – especially those exposed to poor product governance and design;
- supporting enhanced cyber resilience and cyber security;
- driving industry readiness and compliance with the Financial Accountability Regime, reforms in superannuation and insurance, breach reporting and the design and distribution obligations.
ASIC's internal priorities include:
- enhancing communication and engagement with stakeholders and other regulatory agencies;
- improving infrastructure and systems, including processes and governance framework;
- enhancing and effectively utilising data and cyber resilience capabilities;
- continuing to nurture a workplace that promotes a culture of speaking up, challenge and accountability, underpinned by sound risk management and compliance.
The draft CRIS also includes a brief description of the various activities ASIC undertakes which are subject to industry funding (via the general industry levy). These include:
- Supervision and surveillance – via the review of breach reports, conducting interviews and collecting documentary information, using information gathering powers (for example, under section 912C of the Corporations Act) and publishing reports in response to findings of these activities;
- Enforcement – undertaking investigations, litigation, administrative decision making and handling appeals;
- Industry engagement – consultation with industry, attending industry liaison meetings, responding to inquiries and requests for information;
- Education – delivering and promoting access to trusted and impartial financial information, tools and guidance, including publications on ASIC's MoneySmart website, giving speeches and presentations to industry and consumers;
- Guidance – developing and consulting on regulatory proposals, drafting and consulting on ASIC legislative instruments, giving guidance to industry on regulatory topics;
- Policy advice – researching innovation, competition and emerging harms, proposals on law reform, submissions to parliamentary and government inquiries on law reform;
What Next?
ASIC regulated entities will be required to submit business activity metrics via the Regulatory Portal prior to September 2022 to allow ASIC to appropriately calculate the levy. Those entities who do not submit their details by the due date will nonetheless receive an invoice with an estimated levy. AFSL holders should also remember that the levy will be calculated on the basis of all authorisations included on the AFSL, including any authorisations which are not utilised throughout the 2021-22 financial year. Where an entity falls into more than one subsector, the invoice will include the relevant levies for all applicable subsectors.
ASIC expects that the figures released in the draft CRIS will allow industry participants to ensure they budget appropriately for the levy which will be invoiced in January 2023. AFSL holders should make sure to include the levy in cashflow projections moving forward to avoid any inadvertent breaches of their financial requirements in RG166.
