APRA Connect has been live since September 2021. Whilst the ADI industry has been accessing APRA Connect to keep entity information up-to-date; for most ADI's the new ARS 110, ARS 112 and ARS 113 submissions under the Revised Capital Framework will be the first actual data submissions on the new platform.
In this article we share some lessons learned from Super and Private Health industries, who have been submitting data on APRA Connect for some time now.
In this article we cover 5 key items to consider in preparation of go-live.
APRA Connect test environment link: https://connect-test.apra.gov.au
APRA Connect production environment link: https://connect.apra.gov.au
1. APRA Connect Access
APRA has a test environment and a production environment for APRA Connect . Entities should already have authorised users in RAM and be familiar with the functionalities of APRA Connect, including user maintenance, entity information maintenance. If that is not yet the case for the Test environment, you will need to submit a separate access request through D2A to appoint the Regulatory Reporting Administrator (RRA). Since the parallel run submissions for 110/112/113 will be made available in the APRA Connect Test environment, we suggest all (project) resources requiring access are granted access well ahead of the parallel submission deadlines.
The APRA Connect Test environment and the APRA Connect Production environment are managed entirely separately; and user profiles/roles need to be granted separately on both.
2. APRA Taxonomy
APRA Connect has a separate taxonomy, which is specific to APRA Connect submissions. APRA no longer follows SBR/XBRL standards, and with the introduction of APRA Connect, APRA no longer releases a Plain English Taxonomy (PET). Instead, APRA releases a set of taxonomy artefacts on its website, consisting of excel workbooks containing a data dictionary, validation rules and the reporting taxonomy. The reporting taxonomy consists out of the Schema, Elements, Form Set, Folders, Forms, Rules, Hole Restrictions, Entity Details and Report table Template(s).
3. APRA Validation rules
The Validations published for APRA Connect are significantly different to APRA’s current approach for publishing data validations for D2A. APRA currently publishes D2A validations on a regular basis. These validations are constructed using the reporting taxonomy hence referring to the attribute codes in the taxonomy. APRA Connect validation rules are provided as part of the taxonomy artefacts. Since APRA no longer has a concept of Attribute codes, dimensions or concepts/measures, the validation rules are technically more complex to interpret. APRA still provides business descriptions of reporting errors or warnings.
A key observation in Super and PHI is that the validation rules in APRA Connect are executed sequentially; and new validation errors/warnings will appear after a first set of validations/errors has been resolved. .
In addition to the above, APRA has also releases an XSD file that contains the technical validations that must also be considered while preparing the data set for submissions. Entities must consider these rules in their preparation of submission file regardless of their preferred method of submission format e.g. XML or XLSX.
4. Submission Options
APRA Connect accepts different file formats than D2A. Excel file uploads are supported for the Super and Private Health forms, as well as XML files. APRA is yet to confirm the acceptable format for ADI's, but we anticipate APRA will follow the same pattern.
Unlike D2A, structured copy-past is not supported for sections of forms (APRA Connect is restricted to only 1 cell at a time). Practically speaking, entities should prepare to either load excel files or xml files, since the copy-paste option will be too time-consuming and onerous.
Entities should familiarise themselves with the process of file uploads well ahead of the first submission date, as reporting teams will find the new process takes time to adjust to.
API submissions are not supported at this time . APRA has indicated this feature is being worked on for a future release.
5. Large files
Some of APRA's new reporting tables for ADI's, such as the 112 reporting table and 113 reporting table, contain a large number of rows. Reporting entities should be aware of the following:
1) APRA Connect performance: some reporting entities have experienced performance issues with APRA Connect, especially when uploading large excel workbooks. Some entities have experienced time-outs during the validation process, which APRA has addressed by processing validations after upload and sharing the output separately.
2) APRA Connect 200 rows render limit. Entities submitting tables with more than 200 rows, will not be able to see their data submissions inside the portal. APRA Connect has a 200 row render limit. The workaround to see the data that was loaded is through the upload history.
Summary of key differences between D2A and APRA Connect
Below is a summary of the key differences between APRA Connect and D2A.
Conclusion
The introduction of APRA Connect technology has a significant impact on the ADI's regulatory reporting processes and systems in place for submissions. ADI's should get familiarised with the new taxonomies and the upload/validate/submission process and ensure they put in place the right processes and tools to transition to the new APRA portal.
RegConnect was launched in 2021 in readiness for APRA Connect so that our clients can focus on the wider regulatory challenges around granular data collection, while RegConnect automates their submission process on D2A as well as APRA Connect with minimal deployment effort.
RegConnect is available for deployment and is always up to date with the latest APRA Connect taxonomy, validations and submission model released by APRA. To know more about RegConnect, check out the video here or get in touch with one of our product experts who can walk you through how we can get you setup for APRA Connect submissions .