Banking Amendment (Financial Claims Scheme) Regulation 2014 was registered on 22 September 2014.

This regulation states the types of financial products that are protected, and are not protected, under the Financial Claims Scheme (FCS) in the case of an Authorised Deposit-taking Institution (ADI) (ie banks, credit unions, building societies) becoming insolvent.

The FCS provides depositors in ADIs with protection up to the limit of the scheme ($250,000 per account-holder per ADI, in relation to protected accounts).

The definition does not depend on what the account is used for, provided it has the legal features of a protected account. It does not differentiate between personal, business or superannuation purposes.

The regulation restates the accounts covered in the Treasurer’s 27 October 2008 Declaration of Covered Financial Products, and also formally excludes foreign branches of Australian ADIs from FCS coverage.

Regulation 4AAA states that the following kinds of accounts are ‘protected accounts’ under the FCS:
(a) savings accounts;
(b) call accounts;
(c) cash management accounts;
(d) cheque accounts;
(e) current accounts;
(f) debit card accounts;
(g) farm management deposit accounts;
(h) first home saver accounts;
(i) mortgage offset accounts (whether a full or partial offset) that are separate deposit accounts;
(j) pensioner deeming accounts;
(k) personal basic accounts;
(l) retirement savings accounts;
(m) term deposit accounts;
(n) transactions accounts;
(o) trustee accounts.

The following kinds of accounts are not ‘protected accounts’ under Regulation 4AAB:
(a) accounts kept at a foreign branch of an ADI;
(b) accounts with a specialist credit card institution;
(c) credit balances on credit card facilities or other loans;
(d) purchased payment facilities;
(e) pre‑paid card facilities or similar products;
(f) nostro accounts and vostro accounts of foreign corporations that carry on banking business or otherwise provide financial services in a foreign country.