Peak broker body rejects FSRA incorporation
Phil Naylor
The Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia (MFAA) is calling on the Federal Government to resist a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to financial services regulation.
The peak industry body made the call ahead of a Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting today, which speculation suggests will include discussion of a ‘shake up’ of the legislation.
While welcoming “speculation of a takeover of the legislation by the Federal Government”, MFAA chief executive Phil Naylor said the MFAA “strongly opposes finance brokers being roped into the Financial Services Reform Act (FSRA)”.
“Mortgage and finance brokers service consumers in a completely different way than the types of financial services institutions and operators already administered by the FSRA.”
Instead, he urged the Government to use a newly released exposure draft of National Finance Broking legislation prepared by the Office of Fair Trading in NSW to regulate the industry on a uniform basis.
“If the Australian Government is to take over the regulation of finance brokers it should use this draft legislation as its framework,” he said, adding that the MFAA had been campaigning since 2002 for a national regulation of mortgage and finance brokers.
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