Government hikes levies to boost APRA

By Rebecca Evans

The Federal Government will channel an extra $11 million into the AustralianPrudential RegulationAuthority (APRA) over the next financial year, financed through levy increases.

The revised levy rates will lift total levy funding from about $85 million in 2003-04 to approximately $96 million in 2004-05.

Assistant Treasurer Helen Coonan says the decision to raise levies for certain sectors reflected the increased levels of supervision anticipated over the next year in light of ongoing restructures in the superannuation sector.

“Increased funding will enable APRA to build up staff levels in front-line supervision and in specialist risk areas, such as insurance, credit, balance sheet, market and operational risk,” Coonan says.

For the superannuation sector, the maximum levy amount and the levy rate increase to $99,000 and 0.042 per cent respectively, but the minimum levy amount remains unchanged at $600.

Life insurance and friendly societies will pitch in an extra 0.022 per cent, translating to a new maximum levy amount of $460,000 from $414,000.

Levies for general insurers are also increasing by 0.034 per cent to a new maximum amount of $470,000.

Retirement savings account providers and non-operating holding companies have had no change to their levy obligations, nor have smaller institutions, including small APRA superannuation funds.

The Government intends that the financial sector levies for the 2005-06 financial year will be determined on the basis of new arrangements outlined in the recent review of financial sector levies.

In May, the Government stated it had allocated a total of $433.9 million in funding over the next four years for APRA, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Tax Office (ATO).

The ATO was the biggest winner in the funding stakes with additional funding of $326.4 million slated for public education and compliance activities spending until 2008.

ASIC was handed $52.5 million over four years which has been earmarked for enforcement activities and consumer protection against investment scams.

APRA’s slice of the funding pie was slightly smaller than ASIC’s, with the former receiving $47.4 million over four years to build up its supervisory roles with a focus on the area of large, complex and systemically important financial institutions.