The Financial Services Council (FSC) has developed a distribution obligations (DDO) template 1.0 including two products, target market determinations (TMDs) and industry data standards, in collaboration with its members.
The new templates were expected to facilitate the aligned implementation of a new mandatory DDO regime that would start in October and represent a major change to the way the financial services industry designed products and distributed them to consumers.
The FSC’s templates, produced together with partners from across life insurance, funds management and superannuation, would be also available to non-FSC members.
FSC’s chief executive, Sally Loane, said that these templates would make life easier for product issuers, platforms and financial advisers who would otherwise struggle with confusing and inconsistent compliance requirements.
“I am proud that our members and the FSC team have devoted thousands of hours to a project which will assist the entire sector, and consumers. This is corporate social responsibility writ large, and in tangible form,” she said.
“18 months ago we started on this time-critical piece of work, designing target market determination templates and data standards for super funds, platforms and wraps, life insurers and fund managers, to help financial services firms prepare for the DDO regime on 5 October.”
The FSC said that to date, more than 200 non-member companies had utilised the templates and data standards.
The templates now in version 1.0 were:
- Life insurance;
- Income protection insurance;
- Trauma insurance;
- TPD insurance;
- Superannuation master trusts (choice products);
- Superannuation wraps;
- Funds management (covering ETPs and LICs); and
- Managed accounts (jointly developed with the Institute of Manager Account Professionals).
