ASIC has amended ASIC Class Order [CO 14/443] to provide legal certainty about the first reporting day for portfolio holdings disclosure, given the regulations setting out the required disclosures have not yet been made.
Most superannuation trustees, as part of portfolio holdings disclosure requirements, must provide information about fund holdings on the fund website. The first reporting date to identify the holdings of the fund was to be 31 December 2019, with disclosure required on the trustee’s website no later than 90 days from this date. However, the regulations which set out the way in which this disclosure is to be organised have not been made.
The amendments made to CO 14/443 defer the first reporting day to 31 December 2020. This will allow further time for Government to develop and make the regulations. It also provides industry with certainty about the commencement date and time to finalise their reporting processes and disclosures.
ASIC supports greater transparency about funds’ portfolio holdings and encourages superannuation trustees to focus on designing website disclosure about holdings that is accessible and clear for their members. ASIC notes that a number of funds have already taken steps to increase transparency about their portfolio holdings even in the absence of an explicit legislative obligation to do so.
Download:
- Class Order [14/443] Deferral of choice product dashboard and portfolio holdings disclosure regimes
- ASIC Corporations (Amendment) Instrument 2019/1056
Background
The portfolio holdings disclosure obligations in section 1017BB of the Corporations Act require most RSEs licensees to publish information about their fund’s portfolio holdings on the fund’s website. The first reporting date was due to be 31 December 2019 but, as a result of regulations being delayed and ASIC Corporations (Amendment) Instrument [2019/1056], this date will now be extended to 31 December 2020.
Under portfolio holdings disclosure requirements, most superannuation trustees must provide disclosures on their fund website(s) no later than 90 days after the first reporting day and each reporting day after that. These disclosures must identify investment items (being assets and derivatives) allocated to investment options of the fund at the end of the reporting day. Reporting days occur on 30 June and 31 December each year.