ASIC looks to increase MIS NTA requirements

Mike Taylor

Managing Editor/Publisher, Financial Newswire

19 March 2026

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has signalled its intention to increase the net tangible assets requirements for the responsible entities of managed investment schemes (MISs).

At the same time as Treasury considers stakeholders submissions to its review of MIS oversight, ASIC has announced it is seeking feedback on options for increasing the net tangible assets requirements for REs.

The regulator’s consultation paper has provided three options:

Option 1—Increase the financial thresholds in the NTA requirement in line with the consumer price index (CPI).

Option 2—Increase the $150,000 minimum under the concessional NTA requirement.

Option 3—Increase the $5 million cap under the concessional NTA requirement.

The ASIC consultation paper makes clear that its move has been generated by the collapse of the Shield and First Guardian funds.

“In light of recent scheme collapses, we have focused our review on the NTA requirement for responsible entities (and similar requirements that apply to other fund managers) to ensure that the policy intention of the requirement continues to be upheld,” it said. “However, we are also taking this opportunity to seek feedback on the appropriateness of the NTA settings for other AFS licensees to inform any future ASIC work.”

Looking at the three options, ASIC said it considered that it may be appropriate to increase the financial thresholds specified in the NTA requirement for responsible entities to reflect CPI increases, given that they have remained unchanged since 2013.

“Our aim with this proposal is to help ensure responsible entities continue to hold adequate financial resources to meet the objectives, taking into account the change in the value of money over time,” it said.

“If adopted alone, this approach would restore the real value of the minimum financial thresholds while preserving the remaining elements of the NTA requirement for responsible entities.”

On the $150,000 option, ASIC noted that it had applied since 1 November 2012.

“Given the time since we implemented this particular threshold, we have crafted this proposal to better ensure that responsible entities are entities of substance. The proposal also intends to ensure responsible entities hold a sufficient financial buffer to facilitate an orderly transition to a new responsible entity or wind up the scheme if the responsible entity fails, noting that the costs associated with this can be significant.”

On increasing the $5 million cap option, it said the cap had formed part of ASIC’s NTA requirement for responsible entities since 2002 and that it had noted in 2011 that might be inadequate.

“This led to the introduction of the average revenue limb of the test for determining a responsible entity’s NTA requirement, which is intended to capture the operating risks of responsible entities that generate significant income,” it said.

“While the average revenue limb of the test is uncapped, the average value of fund assets limb of the test under the concessional NTA requirement has remained capped at $5 million. It may be appropriate to increase this cap to ensure responsible entities with significant funds under management hold adequate NTA.”