How ASIC our Corp Regulator - will now be controlled by Banks.  ASIC has always been a BIG cash cow for Government.   The ASIC database BROUGHT IN approx $800 million pa in fees from database for national revenue. The Treasurer would then appropriate $450 million back to ASIC as a budget.  PM MT decided sell the database and get rid of the revenue, including the $350 million ASIC profit for Treasury to spend.   BUT NOW the Bankers have suggested the PM MT can now allow Banks and the Finance Industries to be the paymasters and pay ASIC $250 million to do less than ASIC ever achieved in the past!!

Is  there any  Australian or business person that is NOT owned by Bankers.  Banks have just completed a coup over our Corporate Regulator. 

ASIC user-pays fee capped at $662,000 a year

Australian Financial Review Nov 7 2016 10:13 PM

Joanna Mather

Levies for companies with market capitalisation of $20 billion or more will be capped at $662,000 a year under revised plans for a user-pays system for funding the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

Large corporates, banks and the financial services sector will nevertheless stump up the lion's share of the anticipated $240 million required to cover ASIC's regulatory costs for the 2017-18 financial year.

A Treasury paper released on Monday contains a proposed fee schedule involving a series of levies according to industry subsector.

The nation's 2000 listed public companies will be charged a minimum annual levy of $4000, plus 33 cents per $10,000 of market capitalisation above $5 million, collecting $45.5 million a year.

The fixed levy of $4000 is down slightly on the $6000 a year floated in a consultation document last August

In another change, levies would be capped at $662,000 for companies with market capitalisation greater than $20 billion.

The earlier proposal was to cap at $320,000 levies for companies with market capitalisation of $15 billion or more.

"The maximum levy is expected to apply to a small number of companies whose size of operation and number of investors mean they are systemically important to Australian financial markets and the Australian economy and require a significantly higher level of regulatory oversight," ASIC says.

Just over two million small businesses will pay a flat annual levy of $5.

Following a series of financial planning scandals and amid calls for a banking royal commission, the government earlier this year announced a package of reforms to increase ASIC's firepower.

This included a commitment to introduce an industry funding model.

Investment managers

"Under the proposed model approximately 88 per cent of ASIC's regulatory costs would be recovered through levies, with the remainder recovered through fees-for-service," the Treasury paper says.

"The model allocates levies to each subsector based on ASIC's actual reported regulatory effort for the previous year.

"Levies would be calculated after the business activity has occurred and ASIC has finalised its regulatory costs."

The "corporate" category, which includes public and private companies, will raise the most at $80 million a year.

At approximately $50 million, the next greatest burden will fall to investment managers and superannuation trustees, followed closely by a category called "market infrastructure and intermediaries".

Super trustees, for example, will be hit with a basic levy of $18,000 a year, plus 5 cents per $10,000 of funds under management greater than $250 million.

Credit providers will be required to pay a $2000 proposed minimum levy, plus an estimated 15 cents per $10,000 of credit provided greater than $100 million.

"In many cases these levies are lower than those proposed in the 2015 consultation, reflecting the more precise model design," the paper says.

"It is proposed that a maximum levy cap would be applied for publicly listed companies.

"This recognises that the regulatory effort does not increase indefinitely with size in this sector."

Legislation will be needed to enact the changes and industry feedback is being sought.