1. Fiscal Pressures on Registries –
The Australian
Experience
Presentation to the Corporate Registers Forum
Kathrine Morgan-Wicks,
Senior Executive Registry Transformation
13 March 2013

2. ASIC’s role
• ASIC is Australia’s corporate, markets and
financial services regulator.
• Our regulatory remit is broad and includes:
– Companies and businesses
– Financial markets
– Financial services organisations
– Professionals who deal and advise in investments,
superannuation, insurance, deposit taking and
credit
– External administrators e.g. liquidators

3. ASIC’s structure
• Created by legislation: ASIC Act
• Independent of Government and
accountable to Parliament
• Governed by 5 full-time Commissioners,
each with separate areas of responsibility
• Almost 1,800 staff work at ASIC, over 600
staff supporting the registry
• Offices in 9 locations covering each State
and Territory

5. How is ASIC funded?
• The ASIC Registry comprises 1/3 of ASIC
• Funded by Government appropriation – unrelated to
the $664M revenue we collect
• Fees are determined by regulation, indexed annually
to Consumer Price Index
• We collect more than we cost, with $ used to fund
other areas of Australian corporate regulation
• Efficiency dividend applied to appropriation each year
• Working to separate our registry and regulatory cost
models

6. Trends in funding
• Increasing responsibilities – National Credit Register
2010; National Business Names Register 2012; Self
Managed Superannuation Auditors Register 2013.
• Moving to cheaper online models - new registers are
being pushed to 100% online and we are funded for
an online model
• Cutting red tape - rationalisation of State and
Territory registers to national online registers with
lower fees and increased access to information
• ASIC bids for new policy funding to support law
reforms with emphasis on cost recovery and +
savings for business

7. Challenges of 100% online
• Beware the true cost of developing, testing and
supporting online systems, particularly in a time
of tightening capital and operating budgets –
you will not reap the benefits straight away!
• Be generous with your transition and support –
for your customers, your staff and your systems
• Merging paper-based registers eg. transitioning
8 different customer experiences to 1 online
• Migration of unreliable data and increased
exposure in an online model

8. Challenges of 100% online
• Building on a new or untested technology
platform?
• Designing new national processes while
legislation still in development – expensive
change requests
• the fatal legislative deadline for new law
reforms that may compromise your product
• Legislative uncertainties and political factors
• Certain sectors resistant to doing business
online (in Australia maybe 5%)