Strategic Industry Reference Group minutes - Wednesday 19 February 2020

Attendee list 

 Action list (new or carried forward)

1. Welcome, minutes & actions (Sean Carmody)

Sean Carmody welcomed members of the group and confirmed the meeting objectives.

Noted changes to membership:

• NAB - Sharon Seet replaces Michael McIntyre.
• ABS - Paul Roberts replaces Linda Fardell.

APRA thanks both Ms Fardell and Mr McIntyre for their contributions and welcomes Ms Seet and Mr Roberts as members.

2. Conflicts of interest (Sean Carmody)

None declared.

3. New Data Collection Solution Project update (Daniel Hunt)

Implementation approach

APRA discussed the proposed implementation approach for the new Data Collection Solution, to be known as APRA Connect. Key considerations include the continued alignment with APRA’s vision for a new data collection solution, and the insights provided in industry engagements sessions conducted in October/November 2019.

APRA is confident that the revised implementation approach will facilitate a smoother transition to APRA Connect, align submission and system changes with regulatory changes, and allow for different industry needs.

Members of the working group provided feedback and support for the proposed implementation approach.

APRA provided an overview of the timeline for the revised implementation approach. Before each release of APRA Connect, entities will be provided with access to a test environment to familiarise themselves with functionality and collections.

Members queried the rationale for a release date in March 2021 for migrated ADI returns. APRA will further review the rationale and communicate to industry.

The test environment will also be used to support APRA’s consultation with industry on new and revised data collections.

Upcoming communications (Jane Coad)

APRA advised that information will be provided to all entities shortly, covering the APRA Connect implementation approach and timelines and what it means for each industry.

Information will be published on APRA’s website which will be the primary source of information going forward.  Members provided some suggestions about additional messages to be covered in the information release.

To support the implementation approach release, webinars will be scheduled in March for all entities.

D2A update for myGovID (Jane Coad)

APRA thanked members for their participation in an early adopter initiative to update D2A for myGovID. The successful initiative meant improved communications provided to all entities on the process to complete. 

Current numbers of D2A instances being updated are low and APRA encouraged SIRG members to ensure their entities and others in their industry complete the update. 

APRA advised that the ATO date for decommissioning has been revised to 27 March 2020. This may impact reporters who have not made the update and have reporting due end of month. APRA will be targeting those entities to ensure they complete the update in the required timeframe.

The issue of the recent outage of APRA servers and the impact on D2A availability for entities to meet their reporting obligations was raised. In these circumstances it was requested that APRA take into account system outages when determining compliance with reporting due dates. It was noted that APRA’s options are limited by reporting legislation however it is an area that has been raised for consideration in upcoming legislation review. 

4. Looking into the future of data collections (Michael Murphy)

APRA shared key learnings from recent consultation with Private Health Insurance (PHI) and highlighted upcoming ADI Credit Quality collections consultation. These include:

• The desire for broad industry participation in early discussions to ensure a fit for purpose approach.
• The use of a variety of engagement methods to better encourage wide participation, including smaller, more tailored industry engagement session.
• Working with industry to create sample data to aid design.

APRA invited members of the working group to provide feedback on additional ways to effectively engage with industry on collection design.

5. Next steps

The date for the next SIRG meeting will be confirmed by email.