Australian Credit Licence Renewal - Annual Compliance Certificate Required
Each year Australian Credit Licence holders are required to lodge their Annual Compliance Certificate with ASIC - essentially your Licence renewal. This must be done within 45 days of the Licence anniversary date and most ACLs were granted between October and March.
Licensees will be required to answer a series of questions regarding their conduct with their Licence. Buried deep in these questions is one that really belongs at the front of the section, as everything else depends on it:
"As at the annual compliance date, did the licensee have a written plan that documented arrangements and systems for compliance with each of its general conduct obligations?"
Note: All other questions in this section, if taken at face value and without taking the above question into account, might be dismissed by the Licensee with a "Oh yes, I've got that."
When answering a question such as:
"Do you have adequate arrangements and systems in place to ensure...?"
What this question really is asking is:
"Do you have written policies and procedures in place around this subject, do you have a systematic process of testing yourself against these policies and are you performing that testing, documenting the results and taking action to fix areas that were found to be non-compliant?"
Monitoring client files is only one small part of a compliance program, you also must include ongoing compliance with the general conduct obligations. So, if you haven't been conducting regular compliance monitoring you need to start now! Join QED CompliFast today!
The result needs to be a demonstrated audit trail that shows the Licensee:
- Has all the appropriate policies;
- Has a documented schedule (we recommend quarterly) to test itself against the policies;
- Documents the testing results; and
- Takes any necessary actions arising out of the results.
Of course, the above also applies to the obligations around the responsible lending process (file audits). However, we have observed that the industry seems to have forgotten about the other obligations, which are just as important.
With all the noise ASIC is starting to make about enforcement, now is the time to get these practices embedded in your Licensee business.
So, if you haven't been conducting regular compliance monitoring you need to start now! Join QED CompliFast today!
