Financial Intermediaries Act 1996

The directors of a society may apply to the registrar in writing for an order relieving the directors, the society or the auditor of the society from compliance with any stated requirements of division 4 or 5 (other than section 137).

An application under subsection (1) must be accompanied by a written statement made under a resolution of the society’s directors, signed by not less than 2 directors and stating the reasons for seeking the order.

The registrar may require the directors making the application to give information about the society’s operations that the registrar thinks necessary to determine the application.

The registrar may make an order unconditionally or on terms the registrar considers appropriate.

Notice of an order under subsection (4) must be given to the society.

The registrar may, if the registrar considers it appropriate, make an order for a stated class of societies relieving the directors of a society included in the class, a society included in the class or the auditor of a society included in the class, from compliance with any stated requirements of division 4 or 5 (other than section 137).

The registrar may make an order under subsection (6) unconditionally or on terms the registrar considers appropriate.

Notice of an order under subsection (6) must be published in the gazette.

The registrar may make an order about a society or a class of societies only if the registrar considers, for each requirement of this Act stated in the order, that compliance with the requirement—

would make accounts, or a report required about the accounts, misleading; or

would be inappropriate to the circumstances of the society, or of the societies included in the class; or

would impose unreasonable burdens on—

the society, an officer of the society or the auditor of the society; or

the societies, or officers or auditors of the societies, included in the class.

The order may be limited in its effect to a period stated in the order.

The registrar may, on application by the directors of a society or on the registrar’s own initiative, revoke or suspend the order.

A revocation or suspension does not take effect—

for an order under subsection (4)—until written notice of the revocation or suspension is given to the society; or

for an order under subsection (6)—until notice of the revocation or suspension is published in the gazette.