Reconciliation of Annual Disclosure

Objective of this reporting standard

This reporting standard is made under section 13 of the Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Act 2001 (the Collection of Data Act). It requires all general insurers (insurers) to provide APRA with a reconciliation of their published statutory accounts to the APRA regulatory accounts.

This reporting standard outlines the overall requirements for the provision of this information to APRA. It should be read in conjunction with:

• the versions of Form GRF 320.0 Reconciliation of Annual Disclosure Form (GRF 320.0) designated for a ‘Licensed Insurer’ and ‘Consolidated Insurance Group’ and the instructions to those versions of the form (which are attached and all form part of this reporting standard).

Purpose

1. Data collected in each version of Form GRF 320.0 is used by APRA to reconcile:

(a) the financial disclosure of insurers in audited reports published to members under section 314 of the Corporations Act 2001; to

(b) the financial disclosures reported to APRA in accordance with the requirements of other reporting standards made under the Collection of Data Act; and

(c) to indicate the extent and materiality of any differences between the disclosures made in subparagraphs 1(a) and (b) above.

Application and commencement

2. This reporting standard applies to all insurers and shall begin to apply to those entities on the later of 1 July 2005 and the date of registration on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments.

Information required

3. An insurer must provide APRA with the information required by the version of Form GRF 320.0 designated for a ‘Licensed Insurer’ for each reporting period.

4. An insurer that is a highest parent entity in relation to a consolidated insurance group must also provide APRA with the information required by the version of Form GRF 320.0 designated for a ‘Consolidated Insurance Group’ for each reporting period.

Forms and method of submission

5. The information required by this reporting standard must be given to APRA either:

(a) in electronic form, using one of the electronic submission mechanisms provided by the ‘Direct to APRA’ (also known as ‘D2A’) application; or

(b) manually completed on paper, which must be faxed or mailed to APRA’s head office.

Note: the Direct to APRA application software and paper forms may be obtained from APRA.

Reporting periods and due dates

6. Subject to paragraph 7, an insurer must provide the information required by this reporting standard in respect of each financial year (within the meaning of the Corporations Act 2001) of the insurer.

Note: The annual information required by paragraph 3 read with paragraph 6, together with certain annual information required by other reporting standards, will form part of the insurer’s yearly statutory accounts within the meaning of section 3 of the Insurance Act 1973 (the Insurance Act). This means that the information must be audited in accordance with paragraph 49J(1)(a) of the Insurance Act. Under subsection 49J(3), the auditor must give the insurer a certificate relating to the yearly statutory accounts, and that certificate must specify the matters provided for in the prudential standards. (The annual information required from a highest parent entity under paragraph 4 read with paragraph 6 is not required to be audited. APRA proposes to determine an exemption, under section 7 of the Insurance Act, in relation to the obligations under Part IV Division 4 of the Act in respect of the auditing of this information.)

7. APRA may, by notice in writing, change the reporting periods, or specified reporting periods, for a particular insurer to require it to provide the information:

(a) more frequently (if, having regard to the particular circumstances of the insurer, APRA considers it necessary or desirable to obtain information more frequently for the purposes of the prudential supervision of the insurer); or

(b) less frequently (if, having regard to the particular circumstances of the insurer and the extent to which it requires prudential supervision, APRA considers it unnecessary to require the insurer to provide the information as frequently as provided by paragraph 6).

8. The information required by this reporting standard must be provided to APRA 4 months after the end of the reporting period to which the information relates.

Note: Paragraph 49L(1)(a) of the Insurance Act provides that the auditor’s certificate required under subsection 49J(3) of that Act must be lodged with APRA in accordance with the prudential standards. The prudential standards provide that the certificate must be submitted to APRA together with the yearly statutory accounts. Accordingly, the auditor’s certificate relating to the information required under paragraph 3 read with paragraph 6 must be provided to APRA by the time specified in paragraph 8 of this reporting standard (unless an extension is granted under paragraph 9).

9. APRA may grant an insurer an extension of a due date in writing, in which case the new due date for the provision of the information will be the date on the notice of extension.

Quality control

10. The information provided by an insurer under this reporting standard (other than the information required from a highest parent entity under paragraph 4) must be the product of processes and controls that have been reviewed and tested by the approved auditor of the insurer. This will require the auditor to review and test the systems, processes and controls supporting the reporting of the information to ensure that they produce accurate data and are otherwise reliable. This review and testing must be done on an annual basis or more frequently if necessary to enable the approved auditor to form an opinion on the accuracy and reliability of the data.

11. The information provided by an insurer under this reporting standard must be subject to processes and controls developed by the insurer for the internal review and authorisation of that information. It is the responsibility of the board and senior management of the insurer to ensure that an appropriate set of policies and procedures for the authorisation of data submitted to APRA is in place.

Authorisation

12. If an insurer submits information under this reporting standard using the ‘Direct to APRA’ software, it will be necessary for an officer of the insurer to digitally sign, authorise and encrypt the relevant data. For this purpose, APRA’s certificate authority will issue ‘digital certificates’, for use with the software, to officers of the insurer who have authority from the insurer to transmit the data to APRA.

13. If information under this reporting standard is provided in paper form, it must be signed on the front page of the relevant completed form by either:

(a) the Principal Executive Officer of the insurer; or

(b) the Chief Financial Officer of the insurer (whatever his or her official title may be).

Minor alterations to forms and instructions

14. APRA may make minor variations to:

(a) a form that is part of this reporting standard, and the instructions to such a form, to correct technical, programming or logical errors, inconsistencies or anomalies; or

(b) the instructions to a form, to clarify their application to the form

without changing any substantive requirement in the form or instructions.

15. If APRA makes such a variation it must notify insurers in writing.

Transitional

16. If a reporting period of an insurer ended on 30 June 2005, or ends after that date, the insurer must report under this reporting standard in respect of that reporting period.

Interpretation

17. In this reporting standard:

Accounting Standard AASB 1024 means the accounting standard so designated made by the Australian Accounting Standards Board, being the accounting standard that applied in respect of reporting periods (within the meaning of the accounting standard) commencing immediately before 1 January 2005;

approved auditor means an auditor who has been approved by APRA under section 40 of the Insurance Act;

business days means ordinary business days, exclusive of Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays;

consolidated insurance group means a group comprising:

(a) an insurer that is a highest parent entity; and

(b) each subsidiary under the control (within the meaning of Accounting Standard AASB 1024) of that insurer, whether the subsidiary is incorporated in Australia or not;

highest parent entity means an insurer that satisfies all of the following conditions:

(a) it is incorporated in Australia;

(b) it has at least one subsidiary under its control (within the meaning of Accounting Standard AASB 1024); and

(c) it is not itself a subsidiary of an insurer that is incorporated in Australia;

Insurance Act means the Insurance Act 1973;

insurer means a general insurer within the meaning of the Insurance Act;

Note: In the forms and instructions, a reference to an ‘authorised insurer’, ‘authorised insurance entity’ or ‘licensed insurer’ is a reference to an insurer, and a reference to an ‘authorised reinsurance entity’ is a reference to an insurer whose business consists only of undertaking liability by way of reinsurance.

Principal Executive Officer means the principal executive officer of the insurer for the time being, by whatever name called, and whether or not he or she is a member of the governing board of the insurer;

reporting period means a period mentioned in paragraph 6 or, if applicable, paragraph 7.