Reportable Situation
A circumstance that an AFSL holder must report to ASIC within 30 days of becoming aware, covering significant breaches and certain other defined events.
The Reportable Situations regime (formerly the Breach Reporting regime) was overhauled by the Financial Sector Reform (Hayne Royal Commission Response) Act 2020 and took effect 1 October 2021. AFSL holders and credit licensees must report a “reportable situation” to ASIC within 30 calendar days of becoming aware.
Reportable situations include significant breaches (or likely significant breaches) of core obligations, gross negligence, serious fraud, and certain investigation events that last beyond defined thresholds. The 30-day clock starts on awareness — not on confirmation — which is the operationally hardest aspect of the regime.
Late lodgement is itself a breach, and the awareness-clock makes lateness easy to incur. Most firms that get caught late didn’t mean to — they delayed because investigation wasn’t complete, but ASIC’s position is that the clock keeps ticking. The firms that lodge on time do so by drafting the lodgement in parallel with the investigation, not after.