Amendments to Corporations Regulations 2001 have slashed the regulatory compliance burden for Australia's 4500 registered managed investment schemes (MIS).
Corporations Amendment Regulations 2008 (No. 1) removes the yearly requirement for MIS to notify ASIC of their top 20 interest holders, Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law Senator Nick Sherry announced.
"The requirement was of limited value as the rate of change of interest holders, especially in listed schemes, could quickly render this once-a-year disclosure obsolete," he said.
"These amendments will reduce ASIC's administrative workload and are yet another example of how the government is identifying unnecessary red tape burdens and systematically removing them."
The Investment and Financial Services Association (IFSA) supports the Government's move to decrease the red tape burden on the Australian financial services industry, chief executive Richard Gilbert told InvestorDaily.
"We welcome this announcement. If you multiply 8000 MIS by a report of say four or five times a year, that adds up to a lot of paperwork the great majority of which doesn't add one scintilla of value to the regulatory regime," he said.
"The amendment makes MIS more efficient and that of course helps everybody in the industry, be it advisers, their clients or the funds."
The public can still access information on scheme ownership through members' registers which must be kept by all MIS.
