What we do
The Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA) manages the application of bankruptcy and personal property securities laws to ensure confidence in Australia's personal insolvency and personal property securities systems.
We do this by taking a strong and balanced approach to regulation. AFSA is responsible for the implementation, regulation and enforcement of bankruptcy and personal property securities legislation.
We regulate the behaviours and practice of registered trustees, the Official Trustee, registered debt agreement administrators, debtors, creditors, and users of the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR). This is achieved by combining education and outreach, compliance, investigation, and enforcement action.
AFSA also plays a special role in the effective and efficient management of criminal assets and proceeds of crime through the Official Trustee. We work in partnership with the Australian Federal Police (AFP) to manage the proceeds of crime through criminal assets management.
We deliver high-quality regulatory administration and practice by administering bankruptcies and other personal insolvency arrangements, providing information and supporting clients using the PPSR, and managing and disposing of criminal assets on behalf of the Commonwealth.
In delivering these functions, we create an environment in which businesses and the community can properly assess financial risk and make informed financial decisions.
Regulatory Operations Group
The Regulatory Operations Group adopts a whole-of-system approach to regulation, using data and intelligence to prioritise where we focus our resources, and using a surveillance-based approach to monitor our regulatory systems.
Our regulatory approach has several elements which we may use individually or in combination depending on the circumstances or the harms we seek to address.
We are considered and proportionate in our responses. We leverage our regulatory toolkit of education, compliance, investigation and enforcement, in line with AFSA’s strong and balanced regulatory posture.
Regulatory Operations Group structure
Education, Surveillance and Enforcement
To ensure the personal insolvency system operates efficiently and effectively, the Education, Surveillance and Enforcement Division regulates personal insolvency practitioners.
We are guided by the Regulatory Strategy in carrying out this work and a Regulatory Action Statement indicates our areas of focus each year.
We investigate alleged offences under the Bankruptcy Act and Personal Property Securities Act (PPS Act) and, where appropriate, refer for prosecution.
We supervise activities to support and monitor active compliance across AFSA's regulated population of insolvency practitioners, investigate alleged offences regarding bankruptcy and personal property securities, educate and engage across sectors to improve compliance, and provide analytics to support AFSA's intelligence-based approach to regulation.
We support the sectors to improve compliance by engaging in targeted outreach and education activities.
In addition to these functions, ROG takes an intelligence-led approach to regulation by using data, analytics, and intelligence from engagements with our co-regulators and system stakeholders to guide our regulatory services.
As a group function, we use data-driven insights to inform decision making to make our regulation more effective, efficient and targeted.
Personal Property Securities and Regulatory Programs
The most significant component of the personal property securities system is the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR).
The PPSR is managed by the Personal Property Securities and Regulatory Programs Division and is the official government register of security interests in personal property, that is, property other than land, buildings, and fixtures to land.
We provide support for, and regulation of, those who use the PPSR. We ensure it is managed responsibly, is available to use, and contains information that is reliable.
Our aim is to create a positive impact for consumers and businesses by making the system as accessible and useable as possible, particularly for those experiencing, or at risk of, vulnerability.
The Registrar of Personal Property Securities is responsible for:
- maintaining the Personal Property Securities Register, and ensuring it is well known, accurate and used appropriately
- restricting access to the register, and suspending its operation, in certain circumstances
- adjudicating disputes between secured parties and grantors
- providing sector specific information to assist users to effectively use the PPSR
- preserving the security and integrity of registration data, though compliance monitoring, investigations, and enforcement.
This division also takes responsibility for the Regulatory Programs function. This function translates AFSA's strategic and regulatory objectives into programs of work which drive harms-based and proactive regulation across the personal insolvency, personal property securities and criminal assets management regulatory systems.
Our harms-based approach to regulation focuses on identifying and responding to complex, multi-dimensional problems or risks in our regulatory system and developing tailored interventions that can prevent or detect the harm before it happens. This allows AFSA to focus on the economic and social outcomes it wants to achieve rather than specific activities.
Office of the Official Receiver
The Office of the Official Receiver is responsible for managing the registry function for people entering and exiting the personal insolvency system.
This division provides practical information about the impact of personal insolvency options and has a range of coercive powers that can be exercised to support the administration of individual bankrupt estates.
The work of the Office of the Official Receiver supports compliance and better practices in the way it delivers on its statutory functions.
Through the role of the Official Receiver, we operate a public bankruptcy registry service, the National Personal Insolvency Index (NPII) on behalf of the Inspector-General in Bankruptcy.
Office of the Official Trustee
The Official Trustee is a body corporate that, like the Registered Trustees in our regulated population, administers bankrupt estates and other personal insolvency arrangements including personal insolvency agreements and debt agreements.
The Office of the Official Trustee generally administers estates that are either in the public interest or are uncommercial for private (registered) trustees in the regulated population.
We also work in partnership with the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and other key agencies to support the Australian Government in disrupting and dismantling organised crime. We support the Official Trustee in its custody and control of assets that have been restrained by the AFP.
We play a critical role in supporting the Official Trustee’s preservation of the value of assets, acting in a way that delivers the greatest commercial and social outcomes at the point of disposal (or return) of confiscated assets. We also assist the Official Trustee to sell or realise assets after they are forfeited.
Find out more about our Criminal Assets Management activities.