This month we’ve got a few compliance-related topics to bring to your attention. Without further ado, let’s get into it.

1. Flex updates

AFG has made some changes to the Flex Opportunity fields to assist with meeting your compliance obligations. These changes utilise information already held in Flex.

Below is a summary of the changes, and the reasons for the changes.

Commission Disclosure (Loan Summary Tab)

Other Parties being Remunerated field (free text) will now be mandatory when an amount has been allocated to Other Parties in the Upfront or Trail Commission fields.

It is a regulatory requirement to disclose any commissions and who they are paid to. Details from the Loan Summary tab are populated into the Credit Proposal disclosure document. This change will help ensure that you do not forget to input/disclose the name of the Other Party, therefore assisting you to meet your commission disclosure obligations under the NCCP Act.

Potential Conflict of Interest Flag (Loan Summary Tab)

It will now be mandatory to enter in information in the free text box immediately below when the Is there a potential conflict of interest? flag has been selected. This will prompt you to enter in the relevant details of the conflict and/or how it is managed. More information on this and suggested sample test can be found on Help.

Total Interest Costs (Financial Position tab)

The Total Interest Cost field will now be mandatory when you select that a liability is to be refinanced. This is to be entered into the liability details in the Financial Position tab. This amount is the total interest remaining on the current liability being refinanced. Once entered into Flex, this amount appears in the Loans to be Refinanced table in the Credit Proposal document.

This change will help ensure this detail is not missed when entering the other liability details and shows it has been considered when making your recommendation to refinance.

You can utilise the AFG Online Calculators to calculate the total interest costs that need to be entered into this field. More information on the requirements for calculating total interest costs can be found here. Alternatively, you might want to check out our previous Back to Basics: Unpacking the BID Toolkit webinar that covers the debt consolidation and refinance calculator. You will get 1 CPD point once completed.

2. Live compliance coaching sessions – New Sessions Available!

Don’t forget you can now self-register for live coaching sessions with the AFG compliance team.

These sessions are your opportunity to discuss compliance examples and scenarios that are specific to your business with a group of fellow AFG brokers and our knowledgeable compliance team.

You may have already attended one of these sessions following an AFG compliance audit. However, these sessions are now available for all brokers who wish to attend.

• When? Our first round of live compliance sessions have been extremely popular and booked out. We have now released more sessions. These sessions are held each Friday at 9am AWST/11am AEST
• Where? Zoom
• How? Please register in the "Live Sessions" section of Learn and then in the search filter, check the "via Content Library" box and the "Zoom Meeting" box and then click the "Apply". Please use your AFG Suite email address to receive your 1.0 CPD point in Learn.

Important note: places are limited due to the nature of these sessions. If you have registered, please ensure you attend or unregister from the session to allow someone else to attend.

3. Lodging your own deals

We’d also like to touch briefly on brokers lodging their own deals. You must complete the usual full compliance requirements.

It is also important to remember to seek approval from the lender and if you’re not the sole applicant, you’ll need to do compliance docs for the benefit of other parties.

Remember to reach out to us!

If you have any questions about your compliance requirements or any of the changes in this article, please contact the AFG Compliance Team.