The Government has announced plans to streamline Australia’s financial services regulation by transferring state-regulated sectors of the financial services industry to a single national jurisdiction. Treasurer Wayne Swan and Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law, Senator Nick Sherry, released a green paper in early June proposing to move regulation of mortgage broking, margin lending, non-bank lending and trustee companies into the federal level.
“The current regulation in these areas is either duplicated, patchy, confusing, very hard to change or even non-existent,” Sherry says. “As a result, some consumers receive poor or inadequate advice, while opportunistic product promoters use gaps in the existing regulation to take advantage of vulnerable investors. “I believe we can act to better protect investors through a streamlined approach.” The framework is due to be finalised at Council of Australian Governments (COAG) in October.
