ASIC says Treasury holding up FSRB

Delays in the release of regulations around the Financial Services Reform Bill (FSRB) is hampering efforts to implement the new regime by the October 1 start date.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) says it will miss its own self-imposed deadline for issuing all its discussion papers because Treasury continues to hold off on releasing the regulations for the Bill.

ASIC deputy chair Jillian Segal told yesterday’s Investment and Financial Services Association (IFSA) conference in Brisbane, ASIC would be ready to start licencing groups under the new regime on October 1, but there would still be some policy papers outstanding due to the delays caused by Treasury in releasing the regulations

Segal says she thinks the industry is mostly ready for the massive changes to be implemented under the new regime.

“Some pockets of the industry have already indicated they would like to move the new regulations sooner rather than later,” she says.

“However, there are also some pockets of the industry that are waiting for the two year changeover period before making the structural changes.”

Segal says ASIC is recommending to industry players that they move sooner rather than later, saying that ASIC will have more resources available to help implement the changes over the next year.