Colonial ‘flicks the switch’ on FSR

Australia’s larger financial institutions have begun receiving their Australian Financial Services Licences (AFSL) in compliance with the Financial Services Reform (FSR) Act, with the Commonwealth Bank’sFinancial WisdomandColonial First State Investmentsamong the first recipients.

Colonial First State will opt into the new regime on Monday while Financial Wisdom’s licence will come into effect on September 1.

Financial Wisdom, however, will be the Commonwealth Bank’s only practice-based dealership to be licensed with a decision having been taken not to apply for a licence for its other dealership,Commonwealth Financial Solutions.

Financial Wisdom general manager Jerome Bleijie says the decision not to licence Commonwealth Financial Solutions was based on a decision to “rationalise our brand presence” and the fact that many CFS advisers had voluntarily switched to Financial Wisdom.

“The group feels a clearer distinction should be made between the two brands,” he says.

Colonial First State chief executive officer John Pearce says the group has decided to opt into the new financial services regime six months ahead of schedule because it has done all the necessary groundwork.

“With a business this size and with a wide array of products and processes, it has been two years of very hard work across the organisation, but particularly within the legal and compliance teams,” he says.

"We have decided to opt-in now because we have done the work in terms of implementing the requirement of the financial services reform regime well ahead of time so have no reason to delay flicking the switch," Pearce says.