Direct Royal Commission money to ASIC: AFA
The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) has dismissed calls for a Royal Commission into the financial services sector, arguing the money would be better spent providing greater resources to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
The association's chief executive, Brad Fox, said Australia already had the most stringent set of financial advice rules in the world and needed better tools to implement it.
"We have a very robust financial system; it's not perfect but let's spend the money making sure that we're using the rules that are in place," Fox said.
"It's not the rules that are broken; it's the individual cases of conduct that can be improved."
Fox also said that with more than 20 different types of inquiries into the financial services sector already under way, it was no longer about pinpointing the issues but working to remedy them, including examining how ethics are taught to financial advisers, and how they are trained.
"I think we'll see leadership positions develop and, certainly we're calling for it, where the people in management and services to financial advisers need to do the same study," Fox said.
"They need to have the same understanding of things."
Fox also referred to his recent conversation with The Ethics Centre's executive director, Dr Simon Longstaff shortly after the CommInsure story was released.
"He said that ethics isn't about being perfect but it is very important how we then react when we find that something has gone wrong and I think we need to concentrate on the fact that inherently most people are good but they make bad choices occasionally."
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