This page provides AWS financial institution customers with information about the legal and regulatory requirements in Australia that may apply to their use of AWS services.

Regulations

  • Yes. Financial institutions in Australia are permitted to use cloud services, provided that they comply with applicable legal and regulatory requirements, such as those described below. 

  • The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) regulates banks, credit unions, building societies, general insurance and reinsurance companies, life insurance, private health insurance, friendly societies, and most members of the superannuation industry.

    The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), among other things, regulates holders of an Australian financial services licence such as financial advisers, as well as businesses that deal in a financial product, make a market for a financial product, operate a registered scheme, provide custodial or depository services, or provide trustee company services.

  • Financial institutions in Australia may be subject to a number of different legal and regulatory requirements when they use cloud services.

    Regulations issued by APRA, together with the relevant guidelines, provide a framework for financial institutions in Australia when they are planning to use cloud services. Key regulations and relevant guidelines include the following:

    Operational risk regulation in Australia is currently in transition with CPS 230 coming into effect in July 2025 to replace five existing prudential standards: Prudential Standard CPS 231 Outsourcing (CPS 231), Prudential Standard SPS 231 Outsourcing (SPS 231), Prudential Standard HPS 231 Outsourcing (HPS 231), Prudential Standard CPS 232 Business Continuity Management (CPS 232), and Prudential Standard SPS 232 Business Continuity Management (SPS 232).

    In addition, CPG 230 (currently in draft) will replace five existing PPGs: Prudential Practice Guide GPG 230 Operational Risk (GPG 230), Prudential Practice Guide LPG 230 Operational Risk (LPG 230), Prudential Practice Guide CPG 231 Outsourcing (CPG 231), Prudential Practice Guide SPG 231 Outsourcing (SPG 231), and Prudential Practice Guide SPG 232 Business Continuity Management (SPS 232).

    The above framework covers a variety of contractual and operational areas, including due diligence, risk management, business continuity, and monitoring and oversight. The AWS whitepaper AWS User Guide to Financial Services Regulations and Guidelines in Australia summarizes APRA requirements and recommendations related to outsourcing, IT risk, and the cloud. This whitepaper is particularly useful for APRA-regulated institutions looking to run material workloads using AWS services.

    Customers that have questions about the applicable regulations, and how these may apply to their use of AWS services, can reach out to their account representative.

    Regulations are changing rapidly in this space, and AWS is working to help customers proactively respond to new rules and guidelines. AWS encourages its financial institutions customers to obtain appropriate advice on their compliance with all regulatory and legal requirements that are relevant to their business, including other local regulations, guidelines and laws.

  • AWS is committed to offering customers a strong compliance framework and advanced tools and security measures that customers can use to evaluate meet, and demonstrate compliance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements.

    Financial institutions who are using or planning to use AWS services can take the following steps to better understand their compliance needs:

    1. Consider the purpose of the workload(s) under consideration and the relevant categories of data in order to anticipate which legal and regulatory requirements may apply.

    2. Assess the materiality or criticality of the relevant workload(s) in light of local requirements. For example, customers regulated under APRA Prudential Standard CPS 231 are required to notify APRA if they enter into an agreement to outsource a material business activity and should also consult with APRA prior to offshoring a material business activity.

    3. Review the AWS Shared Responsibility Model and map AWS responsibilities and customer responsibilities according to each AWS service that will be used. Customers can also use AWS Artifact to access AWS’s audit reports and conduct their assessment of the control responsibilities.

    4. Customers who have further questions about how AWS services can enable their security and compliance needs, or who would like more information, can contact their account representative.

  • Financial institutions in Australia using AWS services should also consider applicable privacy requirements, including the Australian Privacy Act 1988.

    If customers process or are planning to process the personal data of data subjects in the European Union (EU), they should visit AWS’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Center. More information on these requirements is included in Navigating GDPR Compliance on AWS.

Resources

  • Country-specific

  • The following resources are available for download through AWS Artifact. Please note that an AWS account will be required to access AWS Artifact.

     
    The following resources are publicly available:
    AWS User Guide to Financial Services Regulations and Guidelines in Australia

    This document provides information to assist financial services institutions in Australia that are regulated by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority as they accelerate their use of Amazon Web Services’ cloud services.

  • General
  • Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) 3.2.1 on AWS

    This guide provides customers with sufficient information to be able to plan for and document the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance of their AWS workloads. This includes the selection of controls that meet specific PCI DSS 3.2.1 requirements, planning of evidence gathering to meet assessment testing procedures, and explaining their control implementation to their PCI Qualified Security Assessor (QSA).

    Using AWS in the Context of Common Privacy and Data Protection Considerations

    This document provides information to assist customers who want to use AWS to store or process content containing personal data, in the context of common privacy and data protection considerations. It will help customers understand the way AWS services operate, including how customers can address security and encrypt their content. The geographic locations where customers can choose to store content and other relevant considerations. The respective roles the customer and AWS each play in managing and securing content stored on AWS services.

    AWS Compliance Quick Reference Guide

    AWS has many compliance-enabling features that you can use for your regulated workloads in the AWS cloud. These features allow you to achieve a higher level of security at scale. Cloud-based compliance offers a lower cost of entry, easier operations, and improved agility by providing more oversight, security control, and central automation.

    AWS Operational Resilience

    The purpose of this paper is to describe how AWS and our customers in the financial services industry achieve operational resilience using AWS services.

    Data Classification and Secure Cloud Adoption

    This paper provides insight into classification schemes for public and private organizations to leverage when moving data to the cloud. It identifies practices and models currently implemented by global first movers and early adopters, examines how implementation of these schemes can simplify cloud adoption, and recommends practices to harmonize national requirements to internationally recognized standards and frameworks.

    AWS Policy Perspectives: Data Residency

    This paper addresses: The real and perceived security risks expressed by governments when they demand in-country data residency. Commercial, public sector, and economic impact of in-country data residency policies with a focus on government data. Considerations for governments to evaluate before enforcing requirements that can unintentionally limit public sector digital transformation goals leading to increased cybersecurity risk.

    AWS Risk and Compliance

    This document is intended to provide information to assist AWS customers with integrating AWS into their existing control framework supporting their IT environment. This document includes a basic approach to evaluating AWS controls and provides information to assist customers with integrating control environments. This document also addresses AWS-specific information around general cloud computing compliance questions.

    AWS Security Audit Guidelines

    Guidelines for systematically reviewing and monitoring your AWS resources for security best practices.

  • Compliance Programs

  • IRAP

    ISO 27017

    SOC

    CSA

    ISO 27018

    ISO 9001

    GDPR

    ISO 27001

    PCI DSS Level 1

Review requirements

We are continually adapting to evolving regulations. Check often for updates.

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