The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is being informed of every adviser who leaves the National Australia Bank’s planning businesses and the reasons why they leave.
MLC chief executive and Group Executive, NAB Wealth, Andrew Hagger has revealed the bank’s new practice as part of evidence to a Senate Committee in which he said the business was now both meeting and exceeding its obligations.
Answering questions about how the bank was handling its breach reporting obligations to ASIC, Hagger said that it was actually going further than the requirement “whereby we are actually reporting to ASIC all advisers who depart our network and the categorisation of the reasons for that
departure”.
Hagger told the committee that the bank had increased its level of breach reporting in recent times on the basis of a consultants’ report which suggested that while its breach-reporting processes were sound, they were not timely enough.
“We want to report to ASIC as much as we can and that is why we have just announced that whenever an adviser departs we will be advising ASIC of all advisers and our categorisation of the reasons for their departure,” he said.
Under questioning by Senators, Hagger said he believed the level of reporting now being undertaken by NAB was higher than that which will be required under the terms of the new adviser register administered by ASIC.
