Increased ASIC licensing fees revealed

The consultation paper, titled Introduction of ASIC’s fees-for-services under the industry funding model, is based on ‘time recording’ data collected by the corporate regulator.

ASIC’s new fees will take into account the “weighted average hourly staff rate” and the “average number of hours to assess and process the form [in question]”.

The result is substantially higher AFSL application and variation fees for advisers.

For example, under the current system a typical online AFSL application costs $914 for an individual and $1,643 for a body corporate.

Under ASIC’s proposal, a ‘Retail individual low complexity’ online AFSL application will cost $2,233 and a ‘high complexity’ personal application will cost $5,025.

For a retail body corporate AFSL, the fee will be $3,721 for a ‘low complexity’ application and $7,537 for a ‘high complexity’ licence.

The consultation paper will see hikes in nearly every fee advisers pay. Currently it costs an adviser only $39 to request a voluntary suspension of an AFSL, but that is set to jump to $899 under ASIC’s proposal.

Commenting on the proposed changes, ASIC commissioner John Price said, “The current fees for these activities do not reflect their actual cost and the government is seeking input from industry on changes to address this.”

Advisers and other interested parties have until 15 December 2017 to lodge a submission on the consultation paper.