We’ll use external resources says ASIC
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has signalled greater use of external resources in its wealth management investigations.
The regulator’s chairman, James Shipton outlined ASIC’s intentions to Senate Estimates last night and specially referenced the additional resourcing and funding it was directing towards its so-called ‘Wealth Management Project” which has resulted in a number of actions against the planning arms of the major banks.
He justified the additional expenditure towards the project by referencing the fact that much of what had been seen in the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services industry had resulted from the Wealth Management Project.
“We want to expand and accelerate this intensive program,” he said. “We are also looking at ways to build on our enforcement outcomes. This could include making greater use of external resources for our investigations in order to accelerate response times.”
Shipton also referenced the manner in which the Government had agreed to a raft of recommendations from the ASIC Review Taskforce for increasing the regulator’s enforcement powers including clearer rules around breach reporting, a new directions power and stronger penalties against licensees.
The ASIC chairman also referenced the fact that he had received a sympathetic hearing from both the Treasurer, Scott Morrison and the Minister for Revenue and Financial Services, Kelly O’Dwyer around better budget resourcing for ASIC.
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