The Minister for Financial Services and Regulation Joe Hockey has confirmed that the Government will not be able to roll out the Financial Services Reform Bill by its due date of January 1st next year.
The Minister for Financial Services and Regulation Joe Hockey has confirmed that the Government will not be able to roll out the Financial Services Reform Bill by its due date of January 1st next year.
In a speech made at a seminar for Corrs Chambers and Westgarth lawyers this morning Hockey says the delay was due to legal issues between the Commonwealth and the States.
While not stating these were resolved Hockey says there was agreement on a way forward which would allow the legislation to proceed.
“I’m confident that by the end of this year we’ll have in place a new system of corporate regulation that will provide commercial and regulatory certainty,” Hockey says.
And while he admitted it would be unlikely the Bill would be passed by the start of next year he committed himself to introducing the Bill before the end of the year.
This may still occur as Parliament will meet twice, for two weeks each, before the end of this year. The chances of the Bill making any progress through the Senate are minor as it has only six sitting days remaining this year.
The minister also touched on the issue of declared professional bodies stating that the definitions of personal advice had been tightened separating factual information from recommendations.
However he did state that concerns about the competency levels of representatives giving advice were unfounded and it was the role of licensees to ensure representatives were competent provide services.
“The intention here is not to force every representative to be competent to provide full financial planning services,” Hockey says.
“Representatives only have to be competent to provide the services they actually provide. That said, I want to make it clear that this is not intended to be a carte blanche exemption for all professionals.”
The professional bodies that wish to use this system after the Bill is passed will, according to Hockey, still have to deal with ASIC and convince the regulator why the mechanism should apply to them.
