Additional information requirements for AFS licensing applications

ASIC has recently reviewed its AFS licence application assessment requirements and has announced that it now requires any body corporate applying for an AFS licence (or who has an application for a AFS licence in progress currently) to provide additional information regarding its ‘responsible officers’.

Who is a ‘responsible officer’?

A responsible officer will be any officer who performs duties in connection with the holding of an AFS licence. An officer of a body corporate includes:

• a director or secretary of the body corporate;
• a person who makes, or participates in making decisions that affect the whole, or a substantial part, of the body corporate’s business, or who has the capacity to significantly affect the body corporate’s financial standing; and
• a person in accordance with whose instructions or wishes the directors of the body corporate are accustomed to act (excluding advice given by the person in the proper performance of functions attaching to the person’s professional capacity or their business relationship with the directors or the body corporate).

What additional information does ASIC require?

Good fame and character of responsible officers

For a body corporate applying for an AFS licence, ASIC now requires:

• that they confirm who the body corporate’s responsible officer or responsible officers are, and indicate whether they are also the body corporate’s nominated responsible manager or responsible managers; and
• for any responsible officers who have not been nominated as responsible managers, that they provide ASIC with a criminal history check and bankruptcy check.

Details of directors, secretaries and Australian Business Number

For AFS licence applications, ASIC has previously obtained the names and addresses of directors and secretaries from its registers and given body corporates the option to provide either their ABN or ACN. However, ASIC now requires that body corporates provide ASIC with:

• confirmation of the names and addresses of each director and secretary of the body corporate; and
• the body corporate’s ACN, as well as confirmation of the body corporate’s ABN if applicable.

How do body corporates provide this information to ASIC?

ASIC has released a pro forma document which body corporates must complete and submit with their AFS licence application to ASIC.

What about AFS licence variation applications?

Additional information about a body corporate’s responsible officers is not required for AFS licence variation applications.

For more information on this alert, please contact the below team:

This publication covers legal and technical issues in a general way. It is not designed to express opinions on specific cases. It is intended for information purposes only and should not be regarded as legal advice. Further advice should be obtained before taking action on any issue dealt with in this publication.