Better Regulation Roadmap

Download the Better Regulation Roadmap – Implementation Plan [250KB]

The Council of Financial Regulators (CFR) are working together to deliver better regulation of the financial sector, aiming to improve efficiency through regulatory reform without compromising financial stability, consumer protection and market integrity.

This reform agenda is being undertaken in collaboration by the CFR (APRA, ASIC, RBA and Treasury) with other financial sector regulators – the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA), the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) – collectively known as ‘CFR Plus’.

The roadmap comprises a series of coordinated activities the CFR Plus are undertaking to advance the Government’s better regulation agenda. These coordinated activities include implementing the regulator’s commitments made as part of the Economic Reform Roundtable in 2025, streamlining data collections and data sharing, and identifying priority legislative reforms to support better regulation.

Reform initiatives will be included in the Regulatory Initiatives Grid (RIG) where relevant, in line with the RIG coordination principles. The RIG is published in March and September on the Treasury website, and covers regulatory reform priorities and initiatives that will materially affect the financial sector over the next 2 years.

Implementing commitments for regulatory reform

The CFR Plus has published an implementation plan for regulatory reform commitments. The implementation plan includes over 50 commitments made as part of the Economic Reform Roundtable. They can be categorised into three key themes:

  • simplification and removal of duplication
  • enabling digital and data capability
  • improving government engagement, consultation or guidance

The commitments cover a range of regulatory reform initiatives and while each individual commitment is incremental, the CFR Plus considers that they will collectively have a meaningful impact on the financial sector.

Improving data collection and cross-regulator data sharing

Led by APRA and ASIC, the CFR has developed a package of actions to improve how regulators collect, share and use data – reducing unnecessary burden on industry while maintaining the quality and integrity of regulatory outcomes. The program of work focuses on 4 concrete outcomes:

  1. Strengthening coordination and planning arrangements between regulators and enhance transparency
  2. Strengthening engagement between regulators and industry
  3. Reducing duplication and inconsistencies in data collections
  4. Streamlining existing data collections

This program of work was developed through iterative engagement with the banking, insurance and superannuation sectors to identify areas of greatest concern. The proposed actions were tested with industry groups who have provided their support for their implementation.

From an industry perspective, the actions will free up resources by reducing overlapping requests and uncertainty. Improved coordination and transparency will help regulated entities plan ahead and can reduce the need to add or divert resources to meet requests. Enhanced information-sharing and engagement on thematic data requests will encourage the use of existing data and reduce the need for industry to manually produce data.

Regulators will continue to consider what measures are available to demonstrate the impact of this work.

The timeframes in the program of work are specific to APRA and ASIC. The ATO, ACCC and AUSTRAC are aligned in principle and are considering how comparable approaches could be adopted, where appropriate, for their regulation of the financial services sector.

Regulators will continue to engage with industry as the program of work is implemented to ensure the actions reduce the burden of providing data to regulators.

Legislative reform

CFR Plus are reviewing feedback from industry on legislative reforms which could improve financial sector regulation, including submissions provided prior to the Economic Reform Roundtable. This prioritisation process will inform advice to Government on options that could be progressed, with the aim of improving efficiency without compromising financial stability, consumer protection and market integrity.