Fund management groups miss deadline

A significant number of funds management groups missed the June 30 deadline for lodgement of trustee retirement notices under the Manag-ing Investments Act (MIA), according to ASIC.

A significant number of funds management groups missed the June 30 deadline for lodgement of trustee retirement notices under the Manag-ing Investments Act (MIA), according to ASIC.

ASIC's national compliance manager Pauline Vamos would not disclose which fund managers did not make the cut, but acknowledged they were "medium to large" organisations with more than $1 billion under man-agement.

"A few players applied for an extension to the June 30 date, but we knocked them back," she says.

The news comes after a recent survey conducted by Eureka Strategic Research on ASIC's implementation of the MIA's regulations found the financial services industry was unhappy with the deadline.

ASIC did not extend the date as many in the industry expected, but Vamos says most organisations ended up lodging the notices on time.

"The problem was, the whole advent of the MIA caught people unawares. They knew it was around, but they were hoping it would go away. I think, though, in the end a lot of people realised it wouldn't be such a bad thing," she says.

Apart from this, the Eureka survey results complimented ASIC's han-dling of the implementation of the Act, with most respondents rating ASIC's performance as improved.

"We're happy with the report's findings. I think it shows that ASIC has been learn-ing, just as the rest of the industry is learning. It's always hard to get these things right, and it is early days yet," Vamos says.