Section 4: Other reporting requirements
4.1 Purchaser-provider arrangements
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) is not party to any material cross agency purchaser-provider arrangements. Minor amounts are recovered from Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) for provision of statistical data as recorded in the following section dealing with cost recovery arrangements.
4.2 Cost recovery arrangements
Cost recovery arrangements have been negotiated with the large banks to accelerate their preparations for opportunities available to them under the new Basel Capital Accord on capital adequacy. A special levy is imposed on general insurers for use of a National Claims and Policies Database (NCPD) which assists the general insurance industry by collecting data on public liability and professional indemnity policies and claims. Licence fees are also charged to new authorised deposit-taking institutions, insurers and trustees of regulated superannuation entities in a tiered licensing arrangement for those institutions applying to operate in the financial system. Similarly, a small fee is charged to grant consent to foreign authorised deposit-taking institutions wishing to establish and maintain a representative office in Australia. Costs of providing statistical services to the RBA and the ABS, and prudential services to various State Governments are also recovered.
Outside the fee for service regime, APRA recovers costs on behalf of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) for various consumer protection, enforcement and Superannuation Complaints Tribunal activities and lost member and unclaimed superannuation arrangements as part of annual levies on financial institutions. These latter recoveries are not retained by APRA and are passed directly to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
The fees have been set in accordance with the Australian Government’s cost recovery policy and guidelines, in consultation with Treasury and those that are required to be, are covered by cost recovery impact statements.
In total the above cost recoveries are budgeted to realise revenues of $4.3 million in 2007-08, plus NCPD levy of $1.2 million.
In all instances, the cost recovery proposals have been discussed with the major stakeholders during annual industry consultations involving industry representative associations and/or the main affected institutions. In some instances, such as the Basel II accreditation work, the fees were set by direct negotiation and agreement with the institutions concerned. Other minor fees were also set by negotiation and mutual agreement with the institutions or organisations directly involved.
APRA’s cost recovery arrangements are due to be reviewed again in 2011.
4.3 Australian Government Indigenous Expenditure
Table 4.1: Australian Government Indigenous Expenditure
APRA does not have any specific indigenous expenditure.