Australia's streamlined regulatory system an advantage: Nick Sherry
Several years of financial services reform in this country have been part of a global trend but Australia is now ahead of the curve, according to former Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law Nick Sherry .
Speaking at an industry gathering in Sydney this week, Sherry, who instigated the Jeremy Cooper-chaired Super System Review, said Australia was now benefitting from the fact that financial services was fully regulated at the federal level by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).
This was an improvement from approximately four years ago, when the individual states had responsibility for around 40 per cent of Australian financial markets supervision, he said.
Sherry also lauded the removal of the monopoly of the Australian Securities Exchange as a trade jurisdiction in the form of the Singapore Exchange.
While Australia's overall financial system wasn't threatened as a result of the global financial crisis in the way that some other markets were, there was some "poor practice at the edges" - such as the behaviour of Storm Financial - resulting in significant regulatory overhaul, he said.
"The most comparable countries in the world with federal structures have an extraordinarily byzantine regulatory structure. So Australia at least has the virtue of a single streamlined national regulation in financial services, which is a great advantage in today's world," he said.
Although Stronger Super and Future of Financial Advice reforms have passed the House of Representatives, they have not yet passed the Senate, but Sherry was hopeful each piece of legislation would be passed in the May budget week sitting.
"Many of the issues the Brits are now considering, Australia has dealt with or is dealing with, so there's worldwide interest in what's happening here," he added.
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