Financial Services Industry Partnership

This charter forms the governance plan for this partnership and clearly identifies its purpose, roles and responsibilities.

Purpose

Terms of reference

The purpose of the Financial Services Industry Partnership (FSIP) is to provide senior executives from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and senior representatives of the financial services industry from the small to medium enterprise (SME) market (groups with turnover from $2 million to $250 million) with a forum for dialogue, consultation and the resolution of issues concerning the administration of the tax system relevant to the financial services industry. It will also have a whole-of-government approach to the interactions with industry.

The ATO has representation from all areas involved in administering financial services, including:

• Finance and Investment Centre of Expertise
• Goods and Services Tax (GST), Interpretation and Large Enterprise Compliance (ILEC) Financial Supplies and Insurance
• Small and Medium Enterprises (S&ME) Financial Services and the Financial Arrangements Risk Manager
• Large Business and International (LB&I) Financial Services Industry Group (FSIG)
• Superannuation.

In partnership, the financial services industry aims to:

• help the ATO improve our knowledge of finance markets and the associated products and services
• provide a sounding board for the ATO to help us understand certain events and activities, and to appreciate the underlying drivers associated with them
• provide advice to the ATO on broad trends in the finance industry
• help the ATO identify patterns and trends both within the finance market and flowing from the activities within this market
• ensure the ATO is better informed about the finance industry so that we can better predict change and its impact.

Type of forum and length of term

Categories: The FSIP is a forum that examines the financial services industry from a number of perspectives including:

• client and risk
• tax interpretation and administration
• external environment.

Length of term: Ongoing.

Governance and relationships

• The forum approver is the ATO Second Commissioner, Compliance Sub-plan.
• The forum chairpersons come from the ATO assistant commissioner level across S&ME, the Finance and Investment Centre of Expertise, LB&I and Superannuation.
• The forum's governance arrangements involve an ongoing tenure for the financial services industry representatives, covering a whole-of-government (regulator) approach with a diverse range of representation across industry and association levels.
• The forum maintains relationships with other regulatory bodies such as the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), Centrelink, Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB), Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) and Treasury. It also interacts with
• the S&ME, Superannuation, LB&I and Office of the Chief Tax Counsel (OCTC) business and service lines within the ATO
• other ATO committees/forums that it has a connection to, including the Superannuation Consultative Committee (SCC) and the National Tax Liaison Group (NTLG) Finance and Investment Sub-committee
• external organisations such as the Australian Bankers Association (ABA), Financial Planning Association (FPA) and various super associations.