(2 min read)
In 2018, the Banking Executive Accountability Regime (BEAR) amended the treasury laws in Australia to make senior executives of authorized deposit-taking institutions (ADIs) accountable for bank activities. It also gives new powers of investigation to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) and enables them to disqualify individuals responsible for a breach. BEAR represents a large scale effort to regulate behavior and encourage senior executives to set a strong culture of compliance from the top down.
BEAR came into effect for large ADIs in July 2018, which left many firms scrambling to get their houses in order within the compressed timeline. While given more time than their bigger brothers, small and medium ADIs are now coming up on their in-effect date of July 1, 2019.
One key question to ask is how your firm will approach “reasonable steps” – how will Risk and Compliance and ultimately relevant individuals throughout the entire business meet their obligations under BEAR?
Knowledge is Power
The key to staying current (and staying free from personal liability) requires a compliance program that evolves with new regulations. A system with the right fail-safes in place will help ensure that your firm stays up to date with current regulations.
Technology makes this easier than ever. Ascent for example provides you with a feed of regulatory changes that apply to your firm, helps you visualize how the rule text has changed, and indicates whether that change impacts your existing controls, policies and procedures.
Ascent also serves as a central repository for all regulator documents so you can easily search for speeches, guidelines or other releases concerning BEAR to give yourself a 360 view.
READ ARTICLE: How Ascent Simplifies Regulatory Change Management with Automation
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