Assetless Administration Fund

Assetless Administration Fund

The Assetless Administration Fund (AA Fund) was established by the Australian Government and is administered by ob体育.

What is the AA Fund

The AA Fund funds preliminary investigations and reports by liquidators into the failure of companies with few or no assets, where it appears to us that enforcement action may result from the investigation and report. A particular focus of the AA Fund is to curb fraudulent phoenix activity.

The AA Fund enables a liquidator to carry out a proper investigation and report, which then helps us decide whether to commence enforcement action. It also funds a liquidator to take action to recover assets when fraudulent or illegal activity is suspected.

Additionally, the AA Fund:

funds a liquidator appointed by ob体育 to an abandoned company under Pt 5.4C of the Corporations Act 2001 (Corporations Act), and
funds a reviewing liquidator appointed by ob体育 under section 90-23 of Schedule 2 to the Corporations Act to review a matter that relates to the external administration of a company.

Grant guidelines for registered liquidators

The guidance relating to each of the three types of grant opportunity (previously outlined in the now withdrawn RG 109 Assetless Administration Fund: Funding criteria and guidelines) for funding from the Assetless Administration Fund (AA Fund) is published on the Australian Government鈥檚 grant information system, GrantConnect, in accordance with the Department of Finance鈥檚 requirements.

Details of how to make an application through ob体育鈥檚 Regulatory Portal are found at Request for assetless administration funding.

To access the grant guidelines and annexures, including template grant agreement (grant documents) for each grant opportunity, you need to register as a user on . Once registered, you can search, view and download reports for grant opportunities and grant awards allocated from the AA Fund.

If you have any questions about how to use the site once logged in, visit the 鈥楬elp鈥� and 鈥楥ontact Us鈥� pages. For your convenience we have downloaded the grant documents for each grant opportunity. To ensure you access the current versions you may also want to access them from .

Grant documents

Director Banning

Matters other than Director Banning

Asset Recovery

GrantConnect links

Grant reporting

The accountable authority of ob体育 has assured that in accordance with the Commonwealth Grants Rules and Principles 2024 all reportable grants from 31 December 2017 are provided in . You need to register as a user on . Once registered, you can search, view and download reports for grant opportunities and grant awards allocated from the AA Fund. If you have any questions about how to use the site once logged in, visit the 鈥楬elp鈥� and 鈥楥ontact Us鈥� pages.

Lodging applications for funding and user guides

Funding applications must be lodged online through the . To lodge through the portal you will need to use the following transaction:

Submit request for assetless administration funding

This replaces the previous funding request forms, EX02 (director bannings) and EX03 (other matters).

User guides

The following user guides explain how to submit an AAF application through ob体育鈥檚 regulatory portal:

If you need help registering to lodge online, contact us.

Abandoned Company Liquidator Panel

The Abandoned Company Liquidator Panel (Panel) comprises 32 suitably qualified and experienced registered liquidators. After ob体育 orders the winding up of a company under Part 5.4C of the Corporations Act, the Panel members are required to wind up the company鈥檚 affairs, distribute its property and help employees to access unpaid employee entitlements under the Fair Entitlements Guarantee Act 2012.

The appointment of liquidators also facilitates a full and proper investigation into the reasons why the company failed and allows recovery of any voidable or unreasonable director-related transactions.

The funding for the Panel is from the AAF administered by ob体育. See the list of Abandoned Company Liquidator Panel members.

Reviewing Liquidator Panel

The Reviewing Liquidator Panel comprises 15 suitably qualified and experienced registered liquidators. When ob体育 appoints a member as a reviewing liquidator under section 90-23 of Schedule 2 of the Corporations Act, ob体育 expects the member to inquire, investigate and report on suspected illegal phoenix activity. This includes the conduct of the appointed external administrator where they appear to facilitate or have facilitated the activity through a lack of independence, or by not conducting adequate investigations and reporting both to creditors and ob体育.

These services aim to promote market confidence in the corporate insolvency regime and support the Government鈥檚 reforms aimed at combatting illegal phoenix activity. See the list of Reviewing Liquidator Panel members.

More information

Media release about the establishment of the AA Fund

What's new

Insolvency reforms commenced on 1 January 2021

Reforms to corporate insolvency laws commenced on 1 January 2021 for companies with liabilities less than $1 million. These reforms include:

a new debt restructuring process for incorporated businesses
a new, simplified liquidation pathway for small businesses, and
a new class of registered liquidator who can only undertake the debt restructuring process.

The following legislation and rules gave effect to the reforms:

Industry funding

The Government has introduced new laws that change the way ob体育 is funded. Regulated entities will receive an invoice for ob体育鈥檚 regulatory services delivered in the prior year. Find out what this means for registered liquidators.