The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is looking to hold fund managers to account on RG 97 irrespective of ongoing consultation around finalisation of the arrangements.
At the same time as releasing a further consultation paper this week, ASIC said that it was currently focused on whether issuers were “endeavouring to comply with the current legislative requirements and RG 97 in good faith and not mislead consumers about fees and costs”.
In doing so, it said ASIC would be continuing to monitor disclosure and advertising and that “any strong claims" about low fees that were misleading would “be treated very seriously, and we will continue to intervene against inadequate disclosure”.
ASIC said the approach would continue until any changes to the fees and costs disclosures were finalised and in force.
The regulator’s warning came as it acknowledged that it had again extended the compliance deadline to 2020 to allow further consultation.
At the same time, ASIC acknowledged that if and when the Government’s Treasury Laws Amendment (Protecting Your Superannuation Package) Bill 2018 and the Treasury Laws Amendment (Corporate Collective Investment Vehicle) Bill passed the Parliament further changes might be necessary to the fees and costs disclosure regime.
It said that if the Government’s legislation, currently held up in the Senate, were to pass the Parliament it might “have significant impacts on the proposals set out in this paper”.
