From 5 October 2021, issuers and distributors of financial products that are distributed to retail clients must comply with the Design and Distribution Obligations under the Corporations Act 2001 (DDO Regime).
On this page we have the latest information on:
The information contained on this web page does not relate to Protection Plans life insurance products.
DDO requires issuers and distributors to take a consumer-centric approach - placing consumer outcomes front and centre at the product design, product distribution, and monitoring and review stages of the product life cycle.
ASIC has published Regulatory Guide RG 274 – Product Design and Distribution Obligations outlining their expectations for compliance, and general approach to administering the obligations. The most recent Guide issued is dated December 2020. Please stay ahead of changes by referring to ASIC at www.asic.gov.au.
A Target Market Determination (TMD) is a document that describes a class of customers/group of retail clients (the target market) for whom a product is likely to be appropriate or consistent with their likely objective, financial situation, and needs plus conditions and restrictions under which the product can be distributed.
Target Market Determinations
Our TMDs were made available online from 27 September 2021 at our website Our TMDs were made available online from 27 September 2021 at our website bt.com.au/tmd.
All BT issued TMDs were made available on our public websites, including any TMDs made for badged products available through our platforms. TMDs for underlying funds available on our platforms that are issued by an external issuer, are available on our platforms via Morningstar.
If a TMD was not received by 5 October 2021 for underlying funds from external issuers, to meet our distributor obligations under the DDO Regime we removed the underlying funds from the investment menu. You can find a list of impacted funds above.
You can use the DDO Reporting Tool to report certain information to us such as a significant dealing or an acquisition outside of target market.
Any information contained in the tool regarding distributor reporting obligations is a guide only. For detailed information regarding your distributor obligations, ASIC’s expectations for compliance and their general approach to administering the obligations of the DDO Regime, please refer to the ASIC Regulatory Guide RG 274 – Product Design and Distribution Obligations.
If you provide advice across multiple BT, Asgard, Advance and/or Margin Lending products, please note you only need to register once to gain access to the DDO Reporting Tool.
By using the DDO Reporting Tool, you will be bound by the DDO Reporting Tool Terms of use. These are located in the footer of the tool under Legal > DDO Reporting Tool Terms of Use. Please ensure you read these carefully.
It is unlikely that the DDO Reporting Tool will enable distributors to report all information that the DDO Regime may require distributors to report to a product issuer. It will not enable distributors to report complaints. Further, the TMDs for different financial products may require different information to be reported to the product issuer, and the DDO Reporting Tool does not take into account the specific reporting requirements in a TMD for any particular product. If the DDO Regime requires distributors to report a particular item of information to a product issuer and the DDO Reporting Tool does not enable distributors to enter and submit that information, distributors must report that information directly to the product issuer. If the DDO Reporting Tool is not available at any time, distributors must report the required information directly to the relevant product issuer by other means.
If you’re a Panorama adviser, you won’t receive a registration email from us, as you’ll be able to access the DDO Reporting Tool from 5 October using your existing Panorama Portal login details. If you do receive an email, it may be because you provide advice for other BT, Asgard, Advance and/or Margin Lending products, in addition to Panorama. There’s no need to register as you can access the Reporting Tool with your existing Panorama login details.
You can find the DDO Reporting Tool on the Panorama Portal by following these steps:
Panorama Portal -> Business -> DDO Reporting Tool
Please note that by using the DDO Reporting Tool you will be bound by the DDO Reporting Tool Terms of use.
If you are a non-Panorama adviser, you can use our DDO Reporting Tool to report any Significant Dealings or Acquisition Outside Target Market. If you are an external adviser and do not have access to our DDO Reporting tool, you can complete the registration form available here.
For more information about the design and distribution obligations (DDO) and your obligations as a distributor, please refer to ASIC Regulatory Guide 274.
Our short online training module, which demonstrates how to use the DDO Reporting Tool and provides an overview of DDO distributor obligations, is available now. The module will step you through how to report significant dealings and acquisitions outside of target market.
We’re updating our trading terms and conditions to meet our Reasonable Steps obligation. These will now include confirming that the investor has received personal advice in respect of the transaction being submitted. These updates are effective from 5 October and will be available when submitting a trade.
In connection with the introduction of Design & Distribution Obligations, the Panorama User Agreement will be amended to include a new section on page 7 titled “Applications”. You are directed to only submit an application on and from 5 October 2021 for a Panorama product on behalf of a client if:
No, but most will. In addition, some products that are issued by third parties, but available for selection through our platform products, will also require a TMD.
We are also working with third party product issuers to collect TMDs for those products wherever possible, although it is that issuer's responsibility to make their TMDs available free of charge.
From 5 October 2021, BT requires distributors to notify us of the following information:
These collection requirements are set out in each product’s TMD under the Distribution Information section.
From 5 October, we are asking distributors to report required information via the following channels:
It is unlikely that the DDO Reporting Tool will enable distributors to report all information that the DDO Regime may require distributors to report to a product issuer. It will not enable distributors to report complaints. Further, the TMDs for different financial products may require different information to be reported to the product issuer, and the DDO Reporting Tool does not take into account the specific reporting requirements in a TMD for any particular product. If the DDO Regime requires distributors to report a particular item of information to a product issuer and the DDO Reporting Tool does not enable distributors to enter and submit that information, distributors must report that information directly to the product issuer. If the DDO Reporting Tool is not available at any time, distributors must report the required information directly to the relevant product issuer by other means.
When reporting via the DDO Reporting Tool, on-screen prompts will be displayed to help distributors enter the required information.
The most current TMD will be available online for distributors to review. We will take all reasonable steps to notify distributors, via desktop notification, if a new TMD or a change to target market is applicable.
We’re here to help. If you can’t find the answer to your question in the FAQ section above, please contact us.