APRA Connect release notes

The APRA Connect release notes provide details on any updates made to the APRA Connect system.

What's changed

Various returns updated – please refer to the change log listed under your relevant industry on the APRA Connect Taxonomy Artefacts page for more details.

What's changed

The following FAR forms have been made available:

  • Financial Accountability Regime - Entity Profile
  • Financial Accountability Regime - Register Accountable Person
  • Financial Accountability Regime - Notification of Change to an Accountable Person
  • Financial Accountability Regime - Accountability Map
  • Financial Accountability Regime - Breach by Accountable Person
  • Financial Accountability Regime - Breach by Entity

SRS 550.0 Asset Allocation - Part A and GRS 110.0 Prescribed Capital Amount – please refer to the change log listed under your relevant industry on the APRA Connect Taxonomy Artefacts page for more details.

What's changed

Various returns updated – please refer to the change log listed under your relevant industry on the APRA Connect Taxonomy Artefacts page for more details.

What's changed

Various returns updated – please refer to the change log listed under your relevant industry on the APRA Connect Taxonomy Artefacts page for more details.

What's changed

Updates to primary keys in SRS_332_0 to allow reporting of all valid combinations. Details of the new primary keys can be found in the relevant taxonomy artefact.

What's changed

  • Validation rule changes in SRS_705_0 and SRS_706_0
  • Validation rule changes in LRS_340_1
  • Operational Risk Charge calculation correction in HRS_118_0
  • Dimension corrected for Table 3, Item 1.1 in GRS_112_0
  • Details can be found in the relevant taxonomy artefacts.

What's changed

ADI Validation Rules

New validation rules for ARF 110, ARF 112, and ARF 113 come into effect for the September 2023 quarterly reporting period for all ADIs. 

AASB17 / PHI Capital

Taxonomy artefacts updated with minor changes relating to schemas and validation rules for reporting by all Insurers. 

What's changed

Final release of AASB17 / PHI Capital collections in APRA Connect Test for Insurers. Taxonomy artefacts have been updated with the new collections.

This deployment consists of 30 collections to be released into the external test environment:

  • General insurance: GRS 110.0, GRS 110.0 G, GRS 112.0, GRS 112.0 G, GRS 114.1 G, GRS 116.0, GRS 116.0 G, GRS 302.0 G, GRS 311.0 G, GRS 320.0 G, GRS 400.0, GRS 440.0, GRS 460.0, GRS 460.0 G, GRS 460.1, GRS 460.1 G, GRS 600.0
  • Life insurance: LRS 110.0, LRS 112.0, LRS 114.5, LRS 117.0, LRS 118.0, LRS 311.0, LRS 340.1, LRS 400.0
  • Private health insurance: HRS 104.0, HRS 110.0, HRS 112.0, HRS 112.3, HRS 118.0

What's changed

Second release of AASB 17 / PHI Capital collections in APRA Connect Test for insurers to extend their practice of data preparation and submission. Taxonomy artefacts have been updated with new collections.

This deployment consists of 27 collections to be released into the external test environment:

  • General insurance: GRS 111.0, GRS 111.0 G, GRS 114.1, GRS 115.0, GRS 115.1, GRS 117.0, GRS 117.0 G, GRS 118.0, GRS 118.0 G, GRS 310.0, GRS 310.0 G, GRS 311.0, GRS 320.0, GRS 410.0, GRS 420.0
  • Life insurance: LRS 111.0, LRS 115.0, LRS 310.0, LRS 320.0, LRS 340.0, LRS 420.0
  • Private health insurance: HRS 101.0, HRS 109.0, HRS 111.0, HRS 117.0, HRS 310.0, HRS 320.0

What's changed

AASB17/PHI Capital collections

Additional AASB17/PHI Capital collections will become available, and APRA will advise when taxonomy artefacts and collections are available to practice data preparation and submission. 

SDT Minor Amendments

Bug fixes and clarifications to the existing Superannuation Data Transformation (SDT) reporting standards build following consultation on minor amendments. SRF 605.0 will be allocated following this release.

What's changed

SDT Minor Amendments 

APRA’s response to feedback received on proposed minor amendments to reporting standards introduced under Phase 1 of the Superannuation Data Transformation (SDT) and relevant changes to the forms can be found here. 

AASB 17 / PHI Capital

This deployment consists of 12 priority collections to be released into the external test environment only so that entities can start practicing data preparation and submission. A further release is scheduled for late May to add the remaining collections.  The priority collections by industry are:

  • General insurance: GRS 300.0, GRS 300.0.G, GRS 114.0, GRS 114.0.G, GRS 115.0.G, GRS 115.1.G
  • Life insurance: LRS 300.0, LRS 114.0, LRS 200.0
  • Private health insurance: HRS 300.0, HRS 114.0, HRS 115.0

Further information regarding this collection can be found here. 

Performance & Error Handling 

The latest release of APRA Connect contains the following improvements: 

  • Reduced processing times 
  • Improved workflow performance for granular collections 
  • Improved handling of deadlocks in workflows 
  • Improved performance when clearing data from large returns 

Other issues that have been resolved: 

  • Enhanced logging of issues to assist APRA supporting entities 
  • File size limit has been removed to allow for large file sizes for uploads 

What has changed

New Capital Framework (NCF) update release in APRA Connect 
 

The following matters have now been resolved in regard to the NCF collection: 
 

ARS_110_0

Correct calculations for a range of derived fields

A range of derived fields were incorrectly calculating, these have been addressed; full details are listed in the Change Logs, which can be found here.

Section C Risk Ratios

  1. Countercyclical capital buffer – the reporting standard has been updated to clarify that the dollar risk-weighted amount of an ADIs private sector credit exposures should be reported in column 2. To align with this change, the column heading has been amended from Exposure to RWA.
  2. Countercyclical capital buffer – this section is to be completed by all entities. From 1 January 2023 the Australian jurisdictional CCyB is equal to 1 per cent. As per the public taxonomy artefacts, for the Per cent column, please enter decimals to 4 decimal places. For example, for an Australian CCyB of an 1%, please enter 0.0100.

ARS_110_0: Section D Memorandum items - Non-defaulted exposures 

  1. Eligible Provisions – 1.2 Partial write-offs – item removed in APRA Connect to align to the reporting standard

ARS_110_0: Section D Memorandum items - Non-defaulted exposures

  1. Eligible Provisions – 1.3 Discounts on defaulted assets – item removed in APRA Connect to align to the reporting standard 
     
ARS 112 and ARS 113 
 

During the parallel run for the September 2022 reporting period, APRA turned off the validation rule that checked the combination of allowed enumerations in ARS 112.0 Capital Adequacy - Standardised Approach to Credit Risk and ARS 113.0 Capital Adequacy - Internal Ratings-based Approach to Credit Risk.

For the December 2022 reporting period, APRA has decided this rule will be disabled for initial submissions. APRA will perform checks on the combinations post submission and will contact the entity separately.

A link to the draft new taxonomy artefact can be found here.  
 

Automated Overdue Notifications – Turned Off

In response to industry concerns regarding the inappropriate issuing of overdue notices from APRA Connect, APRA will temporarily suspend their automated generation for all APRA Connect collections.

As an interim solution, APRA will manually issue notifications when collections are genuinely overdue. This manual process will be in place until APRA and the APRA Connect vendor have resolved the systems performance issues. 
 

Updates to Validations Rules

Details of these can be found in the relevant Change Logs, which can be found here.

What has changed

Issues addressed

New Capital Framework released in External Test Environment

The following collections are now available to test in the External Test Environment:

  • Reporting Standard ARS 110.0 Capital Adequacy - draft taxonomy artefacts
  • Reporting Standard ARS 112.0 Capital Adequacy: Standardised Approach to Credit Risk - revised draft taxonomy artefacts
  • Reporting Standard ARS 113.0 Capital Adequacy: Internal Ratings-based Approach to Credit Risk - revised draft taxonomy artefacts
  • Reporting Standard ARS 115.0 Capital Adequacy: Advanced Measurement Approaches to Operational Risk - final taxonomy artefacts

The new draft taxonomy artefacts can be found on the Taxonomy Artefacts page.

Updates to validation rules 
 

Details of these can be found in the relevant Change Log, which can be found here.

Performance

Various system updates have been implemented enabling better performance and a more user-friendly experience

 

What has changed?

APRA Connect is now integrated with the Australian Government Digital Identity System. Details of how to log into the Digital Identity system, and relevant changes, can be found here.

What has changed

New Capital Framework (NCF) update release in APRA Connect

The following matters have now been resolved in regard to the NCF collection:

ARS_110_0

Correct calculations for a range of derived fields

  1. A range of derived fields were incorrectly calculating, these have been addressed; full details are listed in the Change Logs, which can be found here.

Section C Risk Ratios 

  1. Countercyclical capital buffer – the reporting standard has been updated to clarify that the dollar risk-weighted amount of an ADIs private sector credit exposures should be reported in column 2. To align with this change, the column heading has been amended from Exposure to RWA.
  2. Countercyclical capital buffer – this section is to be completed by all entities. From 1 January 2023 the Australian jurisdictional CCyB is equal to 1 per cent. As per the public taxonomy artefacts, for the Per cent column, please enter decimals to 4 decimal places. For example, for an Australian CCyB of an 1%, please enter 0.0100.

ARS_110_0: Section D Memorandum items - Non-defaulted exposures  

  1. Eligible Provisions – 1.2 Partial write-offs – item removed in APRA Connect to align to the reporting standard

ARS_110_0: Section D Memorandum items - Non-defaulted exposures

  1. Eligible Provisions – 1.3 Discounts on defaulted assets – item removed in APRA Connect to align to the reporting standard

ARS 112 and ARS 113

During the parallel run for the September 2022 reporting period, APRA turned off the validation rule that checked the combination of allowed enumerations in ARS 112.0 Capital Adequacy - Standardised Approach to Credit Risk and ARS 113.0 Capital Adequacy - Internal Ratings-based Approach to Credit Risk.

For the December 2022 reporting period, APRA has decided this rule will be disabled for initial submissions. APRA will perform checks on the combinations post submission and will contact the entity separately.

A link to the draft new taxonomy artefact can be found here. 

Automated Overdue Notifications – Turned Off 
In response to industry concerns regarding the inappropriate issuing of overdue notices from APRA Connect, APRA will temporarily suspend their automated generation for all APRA Connect collections. 

As an interim solution, APRA will manually issue notifications when collections are genuinely overdue. This manual process will be in place until APRA and the APRA Connect vendor have resolved the systems performance issues.

Updates to Validations Rules 
Details of these can be found in the relevant Change Logs, which can be found here.

What has changed

Issues addressed

Other key changes 
 

  • New SDT artefects and change log published
  • Functionality added to allow regulatory reporting contact roles to be added to corporate profile for non-operating holding companies and wholesale funders. 

Exporting validation rules and explanations into Excel 

While uploading data entities may encounter validation error messages. To help analyse these errors an MS Excel export option is now available from the Validation Issues page. This will enable entities to sort and filter through large numbers of rule failures associated with a submission. Additionally, for warning rules that require explanations, the standard MS Excel template containing these explanations can be uploaded into a submission, greatly simplifying the submission process. More information about this change can be found on the APRA Connect guide. (Section 6.10.2)


SDT historical data submissions - SRS 705.1 and SRS 251.0 

Implementation of rule constraints to allow submission of historical data. Please refer to relevant Change logs and APRA Connect taxonomy artefacts for your specific industry. 

MyGov – Single User Name 

The system has been updated to cater for the scenario where a user’s legal name can be a single name. 

Performance & Error Handling  

Various system updates and error handling configurations have been implemented enabling better performance and a more user-friendly experience.    

Limiting the number of validation errors that are triggered 

Once 200 validation errors have been triggered within a submission, the system will stop validating data and notify the user of the failure to process the submission.  

What's changed

Issues addressed

Changes to the Private Health Insurance and selected  Superannuation validation rules.   
 

Please refer to relevant Change logs and APRA Connect taxonomy artefacts for your specific industry.   

ARS 115.0 Operational Risk 

ARS 115.0 Operational Risk is now available for ADI’s to test in the APRA Connect test environment 

SRS 605 – Re-submissions  

Requests for resubmission of the SRS 605.0 RSE Structure will be assessed and approved manually 

Large Submissions

A number of entitles have experienced difficulties while submitting large amounts of data to APRA. One of the changes to address these issues implemented in this release is to process returns offline.

When you submit your return, APRA Connect will prompt you to continue with the submission and then: 

  • For small amounts of data, provide immediate feedback on the result of the submission in the form of the usual validation rules (including the validation rule that prevents automatic submission); or 
  • For large amounts of data, process ‘offline’, allowing you to continue to prepare and submit other returns. Once the return is processed you will receive an email either confirming the return has been submitted or there are validation rules to be addressed.  

Note: along with the implementation of offline processing, APRA recommends that entities submitting large amounts of data should not opt-in to the validation rule that prevents automatic submission. 

 

 

 

 

Using APRA Connect

Refer to the APRA Connect support material which includes the Guide and frequently asked questions. Contact the team at dataanalytics@apra.gov.au.

Technical issues?
 

Log a support request with the Service Desk at support@apra.gov.au and ensure that you include the ABN of the entity the issue relates to.

For urgent issues call +61 2 9210 3400 between 9am and 5pm AEST weekdays.

Need help with Digital Identity?
 

Please refer to published material for help with  the Australian Government , myGovID and RAM

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