ASIC to clear industry fee fog
TheAustralian Securities and Investment Commission(ASIC) will call for a standardised fee disclosure template for financial products and services on Tuesday when it releases to the industry its eagerly awaited recommendations from an analysis into fees and charges.
TheInvestment and Financial Services Association(IFSA) has praised ASIC for its action on an issue which has fuelled endless industry debate into how consumers are best protected.
"Consumers will, for the first time, be able to compare fees, charges and associated services for all managed investment and superannuation products. A consistent set of fee definitions in the template will also be used to avoid confusing and varying terminology," says IFSA chief executive Richard Gilbert.
Gilbert says IFSA will endorse the use of the fee disclosure template by its members in their product disclosure statements and will develop an industry guidance note to explain the template to its members and provide consistent interpretations.
In September of last year ASIC recommended a standardised definition for all fees, and their disclosure and purpose listed in one table in the product disclosure statement (PDS) of managed investment products.
Those recommendations stemmed from an analysis by Professor Ian Ramsay of the University of Melbourne, which was the first part of ASIC’s review into how investment fees and charges can best be disclosed within the framework of the Financial Services Reform Act (FSRA).
On Tuesday the peak regulator will release the second part of its review, which will include a standardised template for fee disclosure.
Gilbert also calls on other areas of the industry besides fund managers to similarly endorse and implement the fee disclosure template in PDS's to ensure comparability across the whole industry, as well as products.
The new ‘fees at a glance’ template was developed and co-ordinated by ASIC in conjunction with a range of stakeholders.
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