Australia votes against planning standard
Standards Australia (SA) has voted against the proposed publication of a global financial planning standard by its parent organisation, International Standards Organisation (ISO).
However, the so-called Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) of the standard was approved for publication at an international vote of ISO member countries last week.
The standard will now be officially published by ISO early next year as ISO 22222 Personal Financial Planning — Requirements for Personal Financial Planners.
Notwithstanding Australia’s vote, project officer James Thompson said Standards Australia would now “concentrate its efforts at considering how the new standard can be most effectively used in Australia”.
Thompson said SA’s decision to vote against publication reflected the “strong views” of a working committee - comprising local industry representatives - that is set up to assist the ISO in drafting the new standard to FDIS stage.
He said that the standard, as it currently stands, does “not serve the best interests of consumers because it allows self certification.
“We at SA believes the interests of consumers would be best served by only allowing independent third party certification for this particular standard.”
Reflecting the Australian committee’s views, Thompson said that SA has advised ISO that removal of references to forms of certification other than independent third party certification is the only change it is seeking.
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