Why must you notify ASIC?
As an AFS licensee, you should notify us of any changes to your responsible managers within 10 business days of any change occurring. As well as updating your details in our register of AFS licensees, we will use the information you provide to assess whether the changes affect your organisational competence.
Requirements for responsible managers
Your responsible managers are the people you rely on for your organisational competence. Before you nominate a new responsible manager, you need to ensure that the person concerned:
is directly responsible for significant day-to-day business decisions about your ongoing provision of financial services;
In assessing the relevance of the responsible manager's experience, you need to consider whether they have practical experience that enables them to understand the responsibilities and requirements of their role in your business. This generally includes experience in deciding how the financial services or products their role relates to are provided, and either actually providing those financial services or products or supervising others who do.
Find out more about responsible managers and the organisational competence obligations in RG 105.
How do you notify us of changes to your responsible managers?
You should complete the relevant sections of form FS20 and lodge it with us within 10 business days of any change occurring. The most efficient way to complete and lodge form FS20 is online via our Licensees portal. Or you can download and print a paper copy of form FS20 and lodge it by mail or in person.
We will consider the impact on your business of changes to your responsible managers, but we will not be able to do this until we receive all of your supporting proof documents.
Changing or removing a key person condition
If you are adding a new responsible manager with the intention of changing or removing a key person condition that has been imposed, you must also complete form FS03 to vary your licence.
Proof documents you must send us
When adding a responsible manager you must lodge the following core proofs to support your form FS20:
Statement of Personal Information, including certified copies of relevant qualification certificates
Certified copy of a criminal history check
Certified copy of a bankruptcy check
Certified copies of two business references
Submission on Responsible Manager’s Competence (for Option 5 only)
We need to receive these proofs within 20 business days of you submitting your online form FS20 . If we don't receive them all within this time frame, your online form will be rejected at the pre-lodgement stage.
Statement of Personal Information
The Statement of Personal Information is an attachment to form FS20 and you will print off a copy when you either download a paper form FS20 or print off a copy of your online form, as requested by the system.
All new responsible managers must answer all of the questions in the Statement of Personal Information and it must be signed and witnessed. Part B of the Statement of Personal Information requires you to provide, for each new responsible manager, the details of the educational qualifications relevant to the types of financial services you are authorised to provide under your AFS licence.
You must also lodge all of the new responsible manager's relevant qualification certificates. If a responsible manager has relevant foreign university qualifications, you can apply to Australian Education International – National Office of Overseas Skills Recognition (AEI–NOOSR) for individual verification of their overseas qualifications. Alternatively, you can lodge a copy of the relevant AEI–NOOSR Country Education Profile and a submission setting out the responsible manager's relevant overseas qualification(s) and explaining how this is comparable to an Australian qualification that meets one of the five options in Section C of RG 105.
Criminal history check, bankruptcy check and business references
As an annexure to the Statement of Personal Information, you must also provide a criminal history check and bankruptcy check for each new responsible manager, which must be no more than twelve months old, as well as two business references in the format set out in Appendix 1 of Part 2 of the AFS Licensing Kit (RG 2). If you experience delays in obtaining the criminal history check, you should lodge form FS20 showing evidence that you have applied for a criminal history check.
Submission on Responsible Manager’s Competence
If you are relying on Option 5 in Regulatory Guide 105 (i.e. other demonstration of knowledge and skills) to show how a responsible manager meets the competence standards for their role, you must lodge the proof Submission on Responsible Manager’s Competence.
Where to lodge your proofs
Lodging by mail
Mail your proof documents (and your form FS20, if you haven’t applied online) to:
. Or you can download and print a paper copy of form FS20 and lodge it by mail or in person.