International Law

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has released a consultation package relating to the authorisation and prudential oversight of providers of First Home Saver Accounts (FHSAs).

It is intended that FHSAs can be offered from 1 October 2008.

The First Home Saver Accounts Bill 2008 (FHSA Bill 2008) allows for public offer and extended public offer superannuation licensees (known as RSE licensees), life companies and authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs) to provide these accounts. Such institutions are prudentially supervised by APRA.

RSE licensees will not automatically be able to offer these accounts. Under the FHSA Bill, RSE licensees will have to establish a separate trust for this purpose and the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 will not apply to this new trust.  As a consequence, APRA has prepared an application process and a draft prudential standard for RSE licensees wanting to operate FHSAs.

Life companies or ADIs that wish to provide FHSAs need to notify APRA of their intention to do so prior to providing or offering to provide a FHSA. 

APRA has also developed a draft reporting standard for all institutions that offer FHSAs.