Medcraft urged Morrison to extend BEAR to insurance
The now-retired chairman of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), Greg Medcraft, urged the Treasurer, Scott Morrison to extend the Bank Executive Accountability Regime (BEAR) to insurance executives.
In his final appearance before Senate Estimates, Medcraft admitted that he had said to the Treasurer that the banks should only be a starting point.
“I have said to the Treasurer et cetera that it probably needs to start with banks but then move into the insurance companies,” the ASIC chairman said in reply to a question from Labor Party Senator, Katy Gallagher. “And then we need to think about where conduct is discovered that is perhaps not of a systemic nature or at the entity level but does affect consumers and investors and we can take action under that power.”
Medcraft said that in similar fashion to the regime which applied in the United Kingdom he believed the BEAR should be extended to financial services gatekeepers
“But it needs to be on a more proportional basis because the way it applies to financial services entities versus banks will not necessarily be at the same level,” he said.
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