Statement of Risk by Country

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 general insurers (insurers), including foreign general insurers (foreign insurers) operating in Australia through branch operations, to report to APRA, generally on an annual basis, financial exposure by country or region.

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 400.0 Statement of Risk by Country (Form GRF 400.0) 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 400.0 is used by APRA for the purpose of prudential supervision of insurers.

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 400.0 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 400.0 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: APRA proposes to determine exemptions, under section 7 of the Insurance Act 1973 (Insurance Act), from the obligations under Part IV Division 4 of the Insurance Act in respect of the auditing of information provided under this reporting standard.

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 paragraphs 3 and 4 of this reporting standard must be provided to APRA 4 months after the end of the reporting period to which the information relates.

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.

Authorisation

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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

13. 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.

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

Transitional

15. 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

16. 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 that 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;

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;

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

Note: A reference to a ‘branch’ or ‘branch operation’ is a reference to the Australian operations of a foreign insurer.

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.