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BEAR

Jan 15
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Ascent Adds Australia’s ASIC and APRA to Regulatory Roster

By Blog

“It is absolutely mission critical that Australian financial institutions pay close attention to their obligations under ASIC and APRA, and Ascent’s AI-driven approach can play a key role in protecting firms from risk and reputational damage.” —Jeff Heine, Chief Revenue Officer, Ascent

Ascent announced today the addition of major new regulators — the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) — to its AI-driven compliance platform. Specifically, the update includes a significant number of acts under ASIC and APRA that are most relevant for banks and securities firms operating in Australia. 

Using proprietary RegulationAI™, Ascent dynamically generates the regulatory obligations and ongoing rule updates that apply to the customer, saving businesses significant time and money in analysing regulation manually. This intelligent Obligations Register is unique to every customer. Also included are the regulatory rulebooks and other documents including press releases, guidance notes, enforcement actions and more.

Recent legislation such as the Banking Executive Accountability Regime (BEAR) in Australia and the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR) in the UK seek greater accountability from individuals and executives. In this climate of mounting pressure, Ascent helps customers gain confidence in their compliance programs. 

Among the key additions to Ascent being announced today are:

1. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)

ASIC is Australia’s integrated corporate, markets, financial services and consumer credit regulator. It is an independent Commonwealth Government body established by and tasked with administering the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (ASIC Act). ASIC regulates Australian companies, financial markets, financial services organizations and professionals who deal and advise in investments, superannuation, insurance, deposit taking and credit. All of the following are now supported in Ascent:

  • Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (ASIC Act)
  • Business Names Registration Act 2011
  • Corporations Act 2001 (Corporations Act)
  • Insurance Contracts Act 1984
  • National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (National Credit Act)
  • Banking Act 1959
  • Life Insurance Act 1995
  • Retirement Savings Accounts Act 1997
  • Superannuation (Resolution of Complaints) Act 1993
  • Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (SIS Act)

2. Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA)

APRA develops and enforces prudential regulation of Authorized Deposit-taking Institutions (ADIs), general insurance companies and superannuation funds in order to ensure the stability, safety, efficiency, competition and contestability of the financial system. Ascent has now added the most crucial acts under APRA’s purview impacting financial institutions, including:

  • Banking Act 1959
  • Banking Regulations 2016
  • Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Act 2001
  • Insurance Act 1973
  • Life Insurance Regulations
  • Life Insurance Supervisory Levy Imposition Act 1998
  • Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Regulations 1994
  • Retirement Savings Accounts Regulations 1997
  • Banking Executive Accountability Regime (BEAR); and more.

“We are continually monitoring the global regulatory landscape and have witnessed increasingly strong demand for RegTech in the Australian market,” said Jeff Heine, Chief Revenue Officer with Ascent. “We are very pleased to make these updates to our offering. It is absolutely mission critical that Australian financial institutions pay close attention to their obligations under ASIC and APRA, and Ascent’s AI-driven approach can play a key role in protecting firms from risk and reputational damage. And it’s not only firm-level risk that needs to be accounted for; executives must now be cognizant of their personal liability for compliance failures as well due to BEAR and similar legislation around the world.”

Ascent is continually expanding its regulatory coverage in order to better serve its customers worldwide.

To learn more, request a meeting with our Sales team below.


Dec 20
Love1

How Ascent Helped a Global Top 50 Bank Wrestle the BEAR

By Blog

Case Study

A Global Top 50 Bank identified the need to more proactively and appropriately respond to regulatory change. Their objective was seen as especially crucial in light of today’s climate of heightened personal responsibility ushered in by recent developments such as the Banking Executive Accountability Regime (BEAR) in Australia and the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR) in the UK.

Our Customer at a Glance

  • $20B Annual Revenue
  • 30,000 Employees
  • 1,000+ Locations Worldwide
  • 300+ Regulating Bodies to Comply With

The Problem

Our customer sought a technology solution to address the following challenges:

  • Rising volume of regulatory change, which is impossible to track manually.
  • Challenges with understanding their entire regulatory landscape, including international and domestic requirements.
  • Lack of internal visibility and traceability throughout the regulatory change management process.

These challenges led to missed rule changes and regulatory infractions.

Partnering with Ascent

The Global Bank initiated a project with Ascent to help reduce the highly manual (and inherently risky) effort of regulatory intake and analysis, as well as to provide more visibility into how regulatory changes are tracked, reviewed, and applied to the business.

The Results

— Significant Reduction of Manual Effort. Ascent automatically provides a feed of regulatory changes, eliminating the need to scour regulator websites and other sources.

— Improved Accuracy in Pinpointing Relevant Requirements. Ascent dynamically generates the list of all relevant regulatory changes according to our customer’s specific products and markets.

— Greater Visibility and Traceability. Our customer is able to view relevant changes, track the transfer of the change between departments, and facilitate review of the change by team members. This capability allows the Bank to effectively identify, triage, and track changes.

We help you comply with confidence.

Modern challenges require modern tools. Interested in seeing how Ascent can help you stay ahead of regulations like BEAR around the world?

Contact Us

Jun 17
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BEAR Arrives for Small and Medium Banks on July 1 – Are You Ready?

By Blog

(2 min read)

In 2018, the Banking Executive Accountability Regime (BEAR) amended the treasury laws in Australia to make senior executives of authorized deposit-taking institutions (ADIs) accountable for bank activities. It also gives new powers of investigation to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) and enables them to disqualify individuals responsible for a breach. BEAR represents a large scale effort to regulate behavior and encourage senior executives to set a strong culture of compliance from the top down.

BEAR came into effect for large ADIs in July 2018, which left many firms scrambling to get their houses in order within the compressed timeline. While given more time than their bigger brothers, small and medium ADIs are now coming up on their in-effect date of July 1, 2019.

One key question to ask is how your firm will approach “reasonable steps” – how will Risk and Compliance and ultimately relevant individuals throughout the entire business meet their obligations under BEAR?

Knowledge is Power

The key to staying current (and staying free from personal liability) requires a compliance program that evolves with new regulations. A system with the right fail-safes in place will help ensure that your firm stays up to date with current regulations.

Technology makes this easier than ever. Ascent for example provides you with a feed of regulatory changes that apply to your firm, helps you visualize how the rule text has changed, and indicates whether that change impacts your existing controls, policies and procedures. 

Ascent also serves as a central repository for all regulator documents so you can easily search for speeches, guidelines or other releases concerning BEAR to give yourself a 360 view.

READ ARTICLE: How Ascent Simplifies Regulatory Change Management with Automation

 

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