[Draft] Banking Laws Amendment (Unclaimed Money) Bill 2015 in Commonwealth
Tuesday 23 June 2015 @ 1.38 p.m. | Corporate & Regulatory | Legal Research | Trade & Commerce
On 18 March 2015, the Prime Minister announced a number of changes to the unclaimed moneys provisions. These reforms will be given effect by the Draft Banking Laws Amendment (Unclaimed Money) Bill 2015 and the Draft Banking Amendment (Unclaimed Money) Regulation 2015.
Background to the Changes
The changes to the unclaimed moneys provisions include:
- extending the required period of inactivity before bank accounts and life insurance policies can be deemed unclaimed to seven years;
- exempting Foreign Currency Accounts (that is, accounts held in a currency other than Australian dollars) and children’s accounts (accounts held by or on behalf of an individual under 18 years of age) from the unclaimed moneys provisions;
- ensuring that accounts that satisfy the legislative ‘notification requirements’ after being deemed unclaimed, but prior to being transferred to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), do not have to be transferred to ASIC;
- removing the requirement for ASIC to publish an annual Unclaimed Moneys Gazette, while still ensuring that data can be made available and searchable on ASIC’s MoneySmart website; and
- introducing secrecy provisions to limit access to information in the unclaimed moneys database to those to whom the information relates, or their agent.
Background to the Draft Bill
The Draft Banking Laws Amendment (Unclaimed Money) Bill 2015 amends the Banking Act 1959 (Cth) and the Life Insurance Act 1995 (Cth).
In particular, Schedule 1 to the Bill will amend the Banking Act 1959 (Cth) to provide for new arrangements for unclaimed moneys held by authorised deposit-taking institutions.
Schedule 1 to the Bill will also amend the Life Insurance Act 1995 (Cth) to provide for new arrangements for unclaimed moneys held by life insurance providers.
Background to the Draft Regulations
The Draft Banking Amendment (Unclaimed Money) Regulation 2015 would complement the Banking Laws Amendment (Unclaimed Money) Bill 2015 by extending the unclaimed moneys period from three years to seven years for accounts held in authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs). The Regulations do this by extending the unclaimed moneys period for ADI accounts prescribed to have special treatment under the Banking Regulations 1966 (Cth) and making other necessary consequential amendments.
In particular, the regulations would extend the period of time before linked accounts, sub accounts, frozen accounts and security, set-off or escrow accounts consist of unclaimed moneys from three years to seven years.
Final comments on both exposure drafts are due before Friday 26 June 2015.
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Sources:
[Draft] Banking Laws Amendment (Unclaimed Money) Bill 2015 and regulation as reproduced in TimeBase LawOne
