Financial Markets Conduct (Commonwealth Bank of Australia) Exemption Notice 2025

The Financial Markets Conduct (Commonwealth Bank of Australia) Exemption Notice 2025 exempts Commonwealth Bank of Australia (Bank) from the requirement to keep proper CRD records and produce climate statements pursuant to Part 7A of the Financial Markets Conduct Act (Act). 

For the purposes of Part 7A of the Act, the Bank is a climate reporting entity because it is a large registered bank. However, its operations in New Zealand are limited, and it has a small number of primary users as defined in the Aotearoa New Zealand Climate Standards (Standards) and it is now subject to the Australian mandatory climate-related disclosures regime. 

The exemption is subject to a number of conditions, including that the Bank must lodge the Australian Sustainability Reports on the New Zealand CRD register. 

The Key reasons for granting the exemption (as set out in the Statement of Reasons in the Notice) are that:

• The New Zealand business of the Bank (excluding its subsidiary ASB Bank Limited which is required to prepare climate statements or group climate statements in its own right) is limited in scope and nature, and the number of existing primary users of the Bank’s New Zealand branch is small.
• The Bank is voluntarily preparing climate-related financial disclosures in respect of its global business (which includes the Bank’s New Zealand branch) for the accounting period commencing 1 July 2024 and ending on 30 June 2025 and thereafter will  be required to prepare and publish climate-related financial disclosures in accordance with the Australian mandatory climate-related disclosures regime in the Corporations Act 2001 of Australia. The preparation of these global statements demonstrates responsibility and foresight in its consideration of climate issues, which is a key goal of the New Zealand climate-related disclosures regime (CRD Regime).
• The costs of compliance with the CRD Regime in New Zealand are disproportionate when considering the small number of existing primary users and the potential benefit those few users may obtain from any New Zealand only climate statements.
• The Bank’s primary users will be able to obtain information from the global statements in respect of the management of climate risks and governance at a group level. The global statements will be more reflective of the nature of the Bank’s climate-related corporate governance structure, strategy, and risk management as it relates to the New Zealand business. 

Download Financial Markets Conduct (Commonwealth Bank of Australia) Exemption Notice 2025 [PDF 220KB]