ASIC to extend unlisted entity financial reports deadline

ASIC has announced it will extend the deadline for unlisted entities to lodge financial reports by one month for balance dates from 24 June 2022 to 7 July 2022 (inclusive).

The regulator said the move will "assist with any pressures on resources for the financial reporting and audits of smaller entities", as well as provide enough time for the completion of the audit process.

"Following industry engagement, ASIC recognises that company and audit firms may have reduced staff numbers due to varying travel restrictions and increased staff resignations in the last two years," ASIC said in a statement.

"There may be higher staff absences due to recent and expected increases in COVID-19 case numbers. Some companies may be required to prepare consolidated financial statements for the first time. There may also be a need to make more difficult judgements on asset values, provisions and disclosures given changed economic and other conditions."

ASIC added that some unlisted company directors may be asked to facilitate the spreading of deadlines for lodging the reports by auditors and should consider information needs of shareholders."

"ASIC will continue to monitor how market conditions and related developments are affecting financial reporting and audit obligations for balance dates after 7 July 2022," the regulator said.

"At present, there is no indication that further extensions of time will be necessary."

The extension comes only days after ASIC warned company directors that failure to address cyber security could see them fall short of their regulatory obligations.

Commissioner Danielle Press said June’s landmark ruling against RI Advice — which found that the local firm breached its licence obligations by failing to have adequate risk management systems to manage its cyber security risks — should serve as a timely reminder for company directors about cyber security risk oversight and disclosure obligations.

“ASIC expects directors to ensure their organisation’s risk management framework adequately addresses cyber security risk, and that controls are implemented to protect key assets and enhance cyber resilience. Failing to do so could cause you to fall foul of your regulatory obligations,” Ms Press said.

Following the ruling against RI Advice in June, ASIC reported a “significant number” of cyber incidents which occurred at authorised representatives of RI Advice between June 2014 and May 2020, including an incident where “an unknown malicious agent obtained, through a brute force attack, unauthorised access to an authorised representative’s file server from December 2017 to April 2018 before being detected, resulting in the potential compromise of confidential and sensitive personal information of several thousand clients and other persons”.

RI Advice was also ordered to pay $750,000 towards ASIC’s costs.

Neil Griffiths

Neil is the Deputy Editor of the wealth titles, including ifa and InvestorDaily.

Neil is also the host of the ifa show podcast.