On Thursday 27 August 2020 the AER published our draft working paper on International regulatory approaches to rate of return. The working paper seeks to:

• Compare and evaluate differences between our current rate of return approach and the approaches used by international regulators.
• Identify options for potential changes to our current approach based on international practice.
• Seek submissions on the use of international approaches for informing the rate of return.

To help us understand overseas regulatory regimes, we commissioned expert advice from The Brattle Group, which is released alongside this working paper.

There are areas of overlap between this paper and our third draft working paper, Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and alternative return on equity models. We have published the two working papers simultaneously (together with the expert reports accompanying each) so that stakeholders can consider the links between them.

We invited interested parties to make submissions on our draft working paper on International regulatory approaches to the rate of return. Submissions closed on 9 October 2020. This submission period coincided with our submission period for our draft working paper on CAPM and alternative return on equity models. Many parties responded to both working papers with a single submission.

We received four submissions after the closing date.

On 16 September 2020 we hosted an online forum to present key points from our draft working paper and hear some stakeholder perspectives on the issues. This was a joint forum that also covered our CAPM and alternative return on equity models working paper.

The AER would like to thank those who presented at the forum, as well as those who were able to attend on the day to listen to the views of other stakeholders.