The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has released amended versions of its governance prudential standards. The
changes are minor and remove the restriction that prevented Board
committees, other than the Board Audit Committee, from undertaking the
independent objective review of the risk management function required
under the standard. APRA has amended the standard to recognise that it
may be appropriate for other Board committees to perform this review
function.

The provisions that have changed are as follows:

APS 510: Paragraph 33 – addition of the words “unless, with respect to
risk management, there is another Board Committee which carries out
this function”.

GPS 510: Paragraph 32 – addition of the words “unless, with respect to
risk management, there is another Board Committee which carries out
this function”.

LPS 510 – Amendments to paragraphs 30 and 31. These changes have the
same effect as those outlined above, but involve different wording
changes reflecting existing requirements in the Life Insurance Act 1995
with respect to Audit Committees of life companies.