A shiny new professional code of conduct may yet be the regulator’s Christmas present to the industry.
However, ASIC commissioner Peter Kell warns that best-interest provisions and the number of industry codes put forward may yet delay the process.
Speaking on Monday June 4, Kell told about 55 assembled delegates at the Professional Planner Dealer Group Summit in the Blue Mountains that late this year or early next year was a realistic time frame in which to expect clarity on professional codes.
While the news was generally well received by those present, some of whom had only expected ASIC to release the codes shortly before the Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) reforms become mandatory on July 1, 2013, one senior dealer-group head told PPO that there will still “far too many moving parts” for the industry to proceed with any certainty.
“The code-of-conduct issue is obviously not one that we had fully anticipated prior to the passage of the legislation so we’re still working through some of the issues there,” said Kell.
“We intend to issue a paper that will consult on some of the key provisions that we’d like to see on codes around the middle of this year.”
Kell stressed that a “reasonable level of consistency” would be a key requirement should the regulator approve more than one code.
“Some of the key common elements we will be looking for across different codes, should there be a few, will be governance, the monitoring of members, compliance and the obviate-the-need issue as well,” he said, adding that he has used the word obviate more times over the past few months than the previous 40 years of his life.
The third Professional Planner Dealer Group Summit drew to a close yesterday after two days of lively debate around issues such as attracting clients, pricing advice, professional engagement and independence.
