With less than three months to go until the Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) reforms become law, the peak industry regulator says it will do everything it can to ensure a smooth implementation of the new laws.
Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) commissioner Peter Kell says the regulator’s approach “will not involve pinging people for technical breaches on day one if they are seeking to do the right thing, if they are seeking to get their house in order”.
“That’s one of the reasons why we provided several no-action regulatory positions, as part of our guidance on the fee-disclosure statement,” Kell says. “It’s not in our interests, and neither do we have the resources, to chase people for relatively insignificant technical breaches.
“Where we will take tough action, however, is where we see new obligations wilfully ignored, and where advisers simply fail to seriously address conflicts within their remuneration models.” Kell says ASIC will not hesitate to act against individual planners, where it is warranted.
“We know that most reputable players in the industry are frustrated about the ability of some advisers to seemingly move from shop to shop,” he says. “We do have some new powers under FoFA to help us take advisers, who engage in misconduct, out of the industry. You’ll start to see these used more in cases where, for example, we seek bannings.
“The message we’re sending broadly is [that] where we see misconduct we will take an increasingly tough line; but for those who are doing the right thing and seeking to get the right sorts of systems in place, we’re going to do all we can to facilitate the smooth implementation of FoFA.”
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