ASIC has remade Class Order [CO 07/74] Wholesale equity schemes: Licensing relief for trustees, which provides relief, in specified circumstances, to trustees of wholesale equity schemes from the requirement to obtain an Australian financial services (AFS) licence. The Class Order was due to expire ('sunset') on 1 October 2017.
The new instrument, ASIC Corporations (Wholesale Equity Scheme Trustees) Instrument 2017/849 has been updated to take into account a strengthening, in 2013, of financial and custody requirements as outlined in Class Order [CO 13/760] Financial requirements for responsible entities and operators of investor directed portfolio services, Class Order [CO 13/761] Financial requirements for custodial and depository services and Class Order [CO 13/1410] Holding assets: Standards for providers of custodial and depository services. The financial and custody requirements were not reflected in [CO 07/74].
ASIC has also issued ASIC Corporations (Amendment and Repeal) Instrument 2017/848, which repeals [CO 07/74] and amends [CO 13/760] and [CO 13/761] as they apply to managers of wholesale equity schemes so that they are consistent with the requirements in the new instrument.
Consultation process
The relief was remade following public consultation in Consultation Paper 280 ASIC class order on wholesale equity schemes: Licensing relief for trustees – [CO 07/74] (CP 280), issued in March 2017.
All of the respondents expressed the view that the relief in [CO 07/74] continues to form a useful regulatory purpose and were broadly supportive of the changes proposed in CP 280.
Report 545 Response to submissions on CP 280 ASIC class order on wholesale equity schemes (REP 545) highlights the key issues that arose out of the submissions received on CP 280 and our responses to those issues.
Download
- Report 545
- Non-confidential submissions to CP 280
- ASIC Corporations (Wholesale Equity Scheme Trustees) Instrument 2017/849
- ASIC Corporations (Amendment and Repeal) Instrument 2017/848
- Consultation Paper 280
Background
Under the Legislation Act 2003, all class orders are repealed automatically or 'sunset' after a period of time (mostly 10 years) unless we take action to preserve them. This ensures that legislative instruments like class orders are kept up to date and only remain in force while they are fit for purpose and relevant.
All government organisations are responsible for considering whether the legislative instruments they have made that are due to sunset will be relevant after their sunset date.