The laws introducing the new Australian financial services licence (AFSL) exemptions for foreign financial service providers (FFSPs) have received Royal Assent and will commence on 9 April 2027.
Update
- Following our update last week the Treasury Laws Amendment (Genetic Testing Protections in Life Insurance and Other Measures) Act 2026 (Act) has received Royal Assent on 8 April 2026.
- Under the Act, the FFSP exemptions will commence the day after the end of the period of 12 months beginning on the day the Act received Royal Assent.
- This means that the FFSP exemptions take effect on and from 9 April 2027.
- Schedule 2 of the Act sets out the FFSP AFSL exemptions, which include the “comparable regulator exemption” and the “professional investor exemption” (see our earlier article of 2 April 2026).
- Given that the current transitional arrangements extending the passporting and limited connection FFSP exemptions will expire on 31 March 2027 (see our earlier article of 5 December 2025), we have requested that the current transitional arrangements are extended so that there is no gap before the new FFSP exemptions take effect.
Fiona Smedley
Partner, Sydney
Yorick Ng
Special Counsel, Sydney
Adam Hickey
Senior Associate, Sydney
Key contacts
Fiona Smedley
Partner, Sydney
Yorick Ng
Special Counsel, Sydney
Adam Hickey
Senior Associate, Sydney
Disclaimer
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