Mortgage schemes class order remade

Class Order [CO 02/238] Mortgage schemes – Chapter 5C and disclosure relief was due to expire on 1 October 2017. However, following a public consultation in June 2017, the relief for the class order has now been remade.

The instrument provides the following:

• Scheme registration, licensing, disclosure and hawking relief for certain small-scale schemes with no more than 20 members
• Scheme registration relief in relation to individual mortgages in a scheme
• Withdrawal-related relief for individual mortgages in a scheme

ASIC has temporarily extended the relief for small, industry-supervised schemes until the Legal Profession Uniform Law, which applies to the promotion and operation of managed investment schemes by law practices, comes into force in July 2018. 

The regulator has said that it will review the extension within 12 months of issue and assess whether it should be remade and, if so, whether it is operating effectively and efficiently.

The financial services regulator will not continue the transitional "run-out" relief after deeming it "no longer necessary".

[Related: ASIC targets reverse mortgages as lenders ditch products]