27AAssignment of liabilities to enable revocation

#### 27A Assignment of liabilities to enable revocation (1) If APRA considers that it would, under section 26, revoke a company’s registration if the company had no liabilities in respect of life insurance business carried on by it in Australia, APRA may direct the company to arrange, subject to APRA’s approval, to assign those liabilities to one or more other companies that are registered under section 21\. The company must effect the assignment of the liabilities within the period specified in the direction and comply with such conditions relating to the assignment as are specified by APRA in the direction. (2) Subsection (1) has effect despite subsection 190(1). > Note: A company that has asked APRA for a revocation under section 27 may, for the purpose of obtaining the revocation, make an application to the Court under Part 9 for an order transferring the company’s life insurance business to another company. (3) A company must not assign its liabilities under this section, and a purported assignment under this section is of no effect, unless the assignment is approved by APRA under subsection (4). (4) APRA may only approve a proposed assignment of a company’s liabilities under this section if APRA is satisfied that the assignment is appropriate, having regard to: (a) the interests of the company’s policy owners; and (b) the interests of the policy owners of the company or companies to which the liabilities are to be assigned; and (c) the public interest; and (d) any other matter APRA considers relevant. The approval must be in writing and may be made subject to specified conditions. (5) If a company (the first company) accepts an assignment of liabilities from another company (the second company) approved by APRA under subsection (4), the following are taken to have occurred: (a) policies in respect of which liability is accepted by the first company (the transferring policies) are to be treated for all purposes as if each policy had been transferred by novation from the second company to the first company; (b) a policy owner of a transferring policy is taken to have the same rights against the first company as the person would have against that company had the person’s policy been transferred by novation to the first company; (c) the rights of the first company against policy owners of transferring policies are the same as they would be had the transferring policies been transferred by novation to the first company from the second company. (6) If APRA approves an assignment, the company must: (a) comply with the conditions on the approval; and (b) give reasonable notice (in writing) of the assignment to the company’s policy owners; and (c) give APRA such written evidence of the assignment as APRA reasonably requires. (7) An assignment of liabilities under this section may include the assignment of any rights or benefits in connection with life policies in respect of the life insurance business carried on in Australia by the company concerned. (8) A direction under subsection (1) has effect despite anything in the Insurance Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1991. (9) A company commits an offence if: (a) the company does, or fails to do, an act; and (b) by doing or failing to do the act, the company fails to comply with a direction under this section. Penalty: 300 penalty units. (10) If an individual: (a) commits an offence against subsection (9) because of Part 2.4 of the Criminal Code; or (b) commits an offence under Part 2.4 of the Criminal Code in relation to an offence against subsection (9); he or she is punishable, on conviction, by a fine not exceeding 60 penalty units. (11) An offence against this section is an offence of strict liability. > Note: For strict liability, see section 6.1 of the Criminal Code.