ASIC has released guidance, clarifying the financial requirements with which Australian financial services (AFS) licensees must comply as part of their licensee obligations.
Regulatory Guide 166 Licensing: Financial requirements (RG 166) sets out the financial requirements we have set for licensees, according to the types of financial services and products that they provide.
ASIC is currently in the process of reviewing the requirements applying to different types of licensees. We have restructured RG 166 to ensure it is clearer and easier to navigate for the different licensees to which it applies.
In the new version released today, requirements applying to particular types of licensees are easily located in a series of appendices attached to the guide. Section A of the guide explains how our financial requirements work, and how to decide which requirements apply.
Major changes in this version of RG 166 include:
- updated requirements for responsible entities, which were announced in November 2011, and updated in October 2012, and which have become effective as of 1 November 2012 (refer to 11-242MR)
- new requirements for issuers of over-the-counter derivatives to retail clients—these were previously released in Regulatory Guide 239 Retail OTC derivative issuers: Financial requirements (RG 239), but have now been incorporated into RG 166, and RG 239 will be withdrawn, and
- new guidance on financial requirements for market participants, to reflect changes to the way these AFS licensees are regulated since ASIC assumed responsibility for supervising market participant capital requirements from ASX on 1 August 2011.
All other requirements remain unchanged.