news item

ASIC proposes further relief for licensees under the reportable situations regime

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ASIC is proposing additional relief to further assist Australian financial services and credit licensees comply with the reportable situations regime.

ASIC’s proposed additional relief aims to reduce the reporting burden on industry while still ensuring that ASIC receives reports of high regulatory value.

We are inviting feedback on our proposal to give relief from reporting certain breaches of the misleading and deceptive conduct provisions, and certain contraventions of civil penalties where:

  • the breach has been rectified within 30 days from when it first occurred (this includes paying any necessary remediation), and
  • the number of impacted consumers is not more than five, and
  • the total financial loss or damage to all impacted consumers resulting from the breach is not more than $500 (including where the loss has been remediated), and
  • the breach is not a contravention of the client money reporting rules, and clearing and settlement rules.

Licensees are required to have systems and processes in place to identify, escalate, investigate, rectify and capture incidents and breaches as part of their general obligations.

More information

CS 16 Reportable situations – additional relief

Providing feedback

Please send your feedback to rri.consultation@asic.gov.au by 5pm AEDST on 11 March 2025.

Background

The reportable situations regime requires licensees to promptly identify, fix and report potential misconduct.

Compliance with the regime can help lift industry standards and in turn improve consumer outcomes. A key objective of the regime is to also increase regulatory intelligence for ASIC.

ASIC’s work to strengthen the operation of the reportable situations regime since its introduction in October 2021 includes:

  • on 27 April 2023 we released updated guidance for licensees in response to operational issues (see 23-106MR)
  • on 24 September 2024, we extended relief from reporting certain breaches of the misleading and deceptive conduct provisions, and
  • on 4 December 2024, we published findings of our review into compliance with the regime, including prompts to help strengthen licensee practices.

 

ASIC is Australia’s corporate, markets and financial services regulator.