The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) does not support further delays to the implementation of Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) reforms while a regulatory impact study is completed.
ASFA chief executive Pauline Vamos said in her presentation to the Parliamentary Joint Committee reviewing FOFA legislation that ASFA strongly supported regulatory impact statements, but that FOFA had already been a very long process and a lot of the analytical work had already been done.
Vamos told Money Management it would not add anything to go back and carry out the whole process now, but rather further analysis should be a part of the legislative development of FOFA,
She said it was important to ensure the right public outcomes were achieved and that the costs of implementation and benefits to consumers were balanced.
As a minimum, ASFA wanted a soft start to FOFA legislation by 1 July 2012, with hard compliance with the legislation from 1 July 2013. That would allow stakeholders to deal with any uncertainty over the legislation.
Vamos also agreed there was merit to aligning the implementation of aspects of FOFA with MySuper legislation in as far as it meant product providers weren't required to start remaking one set of tools, then having to make a fresh round of changes 12 months later – so long as the industry was still able to start making the move towards compliance with new legislation as soon as possible.
