Toolkit Introduction
Welcome to the 1 January 2011 Colonial Margin Loan toolkit, designed to provide our CGI advisers and dealer groups with all the necessary information, tools and resources to prepare for regulatory changes affecting Colonial Margin Loans from 1 January 2011.
This Toolkit will enable you to:
- Learn about the changes we're making to our business, the drivers for these changes and what they mean for dealer groups and advisers
- Learn about how the changes are being implemented
- Learn about the introduction of a Product Disclosure Statement for Margin Loans
- Understand how the Colonial Margin Loan application form is changing and the transition process
- Learn about the changes to the Terms & Conditions of the Colonial Margin Loan and understand what the key changes are
- Access the new or updated documents you need from 1 January 2011
Specific impacts to you are called out in bold text.
Margin lending regulation and obligations
Background
On 1 January 2010, the Corporations Legislation Amendment (Financial Services Modernisation) Act commenced. A new regulatory regime for margin loans was established by including margin lending as a financial product in Chapter 7 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Chapter 7).
This will make margin lenders and advisers subject to various obligations under Chapter 7 including new licensing, disclosure and conduct requirements.
The implementation timeline is below:
| Action | Date |
|---|---|
| Commencement of the Act | 1 January 2010 |
| Application period for Australian Financial Services (AFS) licence or a variation to an existing AFS licence | 1 February 2010 to 30 June 2010 |
| Closing date for licence or variation application | 30 June 2010 |
| Commencement of new conduct and disclosure requirements | 1 January 2011 |
| Deadline for compliance with training standards under RG 146 | 1 July 2011 |
Changes scheduled for 1 January 2011
Licensing
An important obligation for dealer groups and advisers who wish to provide margin lending products and services to their clients is the requirement to have the appropriate Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) authorisation for margin lending in place before 1 January 2011.
An adviser linked to a margin loan must be specifically authorised to deal in, or provide advice on, a margin lending facility by an AFS licensee, and will be required to be:
- an authorised representative of an appropriately authorised AFS licence holder; or
- an employee or director of an appropriately authorised AFS licence holder or of a related body corporate of an AFS Licence holder; or
- an employee of an authorised representative of an appropriately authorised AFS licence Holder.
Advisers or dealer groups who applied for a new licence or a variation to an existing licence before 1 July 2010 may continue to provide margin lending advice until such time as the application is approved or declined. However, if an application was not lodged prior to 1 July 2010, they may not advise on margin lending facilities until an application has been approved.
Disclosure requirements
Margin loans become regulated financial products from 1 January 2011.
This means a margin loan Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) must be provided to a client by the adviser each time a recommendation is made to apply for a margin loan.
The PDS is a concise, short form document available here.
Financial Services Guide (FSG)
It is your responsibility to ensure that your FSG has been updated to include margin lending and that you distribute it to a potential client with the PDS when advising on a margin loan.
Responsible Lending
New responsible lending requirements will also come into effect on 1 January 2011.
As a result, issuers of margin lending facilities will be required to:
- make reasonable inquiries about the client's financial situation, including whether the client has taken out a loan to fund the equity contribution (double gearing);
- verify that information; and then
- make an assessment, based on the information collected, the facility is "not unsuitable" for the client, before issuing or increasing the credit limit of an existing margin lending facility.
The Colonial Margin Loan application form and Credit Limit Increase application form have been updated to capture this information.
For full details on how to complete the forms, click here.
An unsuitable margin lending facility
As part of the responsible lending requirements, CGI has also updated our "Not Unsuitable Test" for new clients, to ensure that the margin lending facility is "not unsuitable" for them.
A margin lending facility will be "unsuitable" for a client if, should the facility go into margin call, the client would be unable to comply with their financial obligations around a margin call, or would only be able to do so with substantial financial hardship.
This assessment may also apply when clients apply for a credit limit increase on an existing margin loan. If a margin loan or margin loan credit limit increase is deemed unsuitable for a client's current financial situation, it must not be provided.
Adviser originated loans - verification
From 1 January 2011, for new loan applications and credit limit increases which potentially take the approved limit to $250,000, advisers will be required to attest that they have verified the client's stated amounts of income and liquid assets in the application form.
For loans over $250,000[i], and credit limit increases for loans over $250,000 [i], CGI will require documented evidence of a client's stated level of income and liquid assets to be sent to us for verification.
Statement of Advice (SoA)
From 1 January 2011, we require the Statement of Advice used to recommend the facility to be no older than 90 days at the time of settlement. The new Colonial Margin Loan application form requires advisers to declare that an SoA has been provided, and to record the SoA date of issue.
The loan recommended in the SoA must have settled within 90 days of the SoA date of issue, or a new application form will be required to be completed.
Margin Call Notifications
From 1 January 2011, in the interests of transparency, CGI's policy will be to take reasonable steps to notify clients in each case of a margin call.
Advisers will receive an email that includes a consolidated list of all margin calls sent to their clients on that particular day.
In order to effectively receive timely notification of margin calls (and also 'Buffer' notices), dealer groups and advisers are required to ensure that the contact details we hold for them are current. Any updates to contact details should be sent to marginlending-adviserservices@cba.com.au.
More information
You can find out more about the margin lending and consumer credit regulatory changes on the ASIC website.
Important information - This material is not legal advice and is not financial product advice and is not to be relied upon by any party external to Colonial Geared Investments. Any such party should seek their own legal advice regarding the effect of the amendments to the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) relating to the regulation of margin lending facilities and the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009.