Just when you thought the Federal Government might be losing interest in regulating everything that moves in the financial services sector comes news that Canberra has set up an Office of Best Practice Regulation (OBPR).

But rather than adding to the burden, the OBPR (formerly the Office of Regulation Review) has been established to ensure an objective, detailed analysis of regulation compliance costs.

The new office will work with the Productivity Commission to annually review and identify regulation that is unnecessarily burdensome, complex or redundant, or duplicates regulation in other jurisdictions.

The rolling program of reviews will examine all sectors of the economy over a five‑year cycle, starting this year with primary industries. This is expected to be completed by the end of October.

The second OBPR review kicks off in November and will focus on the regulatory costs faced by the insurance sector.