Government welcomes short disclosure documents

The Government has welcomed regulations prescribing short and simple product disclosure documents for margin loans, superannuation and simple managed investment schemes.

“Cutting down product disclosure documents from over 100 pages to eight pages and making it easier for businesses to use alternative methods such as the internet for disclosing large amounts of detailed product information will also reduce costs for industry,” said the Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Lindsay Tanner.

The reforms mark the completion of the Government’s second Better Regulation Ministerial Partnership between the Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law, Chris Bowen, and Tanner, and form a key part of the Rudd Government's better regulation agenda, Tanner said in a statement.

Bowen said the shorter product disclosure documents would make it more likely that investors would read the information and make better investment decisions.

The Government consulted through public information sessions, a margin lending industry consultation group and an advisory panel of key financial services industry and consumer representatives in developing shorter product disclosure documents, the statement read.

Consumer testing sessions were also undertaken and following public consultation significant numbers of submissions were received that informed the final regulations, according to the statement.