The Federal Government has released a discussion paper to further streamline prudential regulation for general and life insurers, as well as authorised deposit-taking institutions and superannuation entities.

Assistant Treasurer Peter Dutton says the paper is in response to the “Rethinking Regulation” report of the taskforce on reducing regulatory burdens on business released earlier in the year, as well as outstanding recommendations of the HIH Royal Commission.

The paper, Streamlining prudential regulation: response to rethinking regulation, aims to remove regulatory overlaps and provide greater flexibility for the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) to tailor prudential requirements as well as remove unnecessary or out-of-date legislation and improve APRA’s independence and accountability for its decisions.

The Government has invited interested parties to provide comments by February 15.