The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has chosen to portray its failed action against IOOF Limited and five of its senior officers as a test case which has served to clarify conflicts of interest.
Hours after suffering the legal defeat in the Federal Court on Friday, APRA deputy chair, Helen Rowell, admitted the regulator was disappointed by the decision but said the case had served to examine “a range of legal questions relating to superannuation law and regulation that had not previously been test ed in court”.
“Litigation outcomes are inherently unpredictable, however APRA remains prepared to launch court action – where appropriate – when entities breach the law or fail to act in an open and cooperative manner,” her statement said.
“APRA still believes this was an important case to pursue given the nature, seriousness and number of potential contraventions APRA had identified with IOOF.”
Rowell also noted that additional licence conditions that APRA had imposed on IOOF in December were unaffected by the judgement and remained in force.
“APRA has seen significant improvement in the level of cooperation from IOOF since this case was launched. Additionally, the new licence conditions have enhanced IOOF’s organisational structure and governance, including the role and independence of the trustee board within the IOOF group. This will better support effective identification and management of future conflicts of interest,” her statement said.
The APRA action, launched in the immediate wake of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry is estimated to have cost APRA several million dollars in circumstances where costs were awarded against the regulator.
Comments
Seems that APRA failed in their test
cost the taxpayer $20,000,000
Another excellent use of taxpayer money
This is an absolute disgrace for a regulator to behave like this. They have incurred costs of several million dollars just to test the water. So this will be included in the levy costs on industry, and APRA has willingly damaged IOOF in the market place, and potentially destroyed the careers of several top people in the industry.
APRA needs to be taken to task. They respond with arrogance to justify their failure in the court case. These individuals in APRA should be held personally accountable – like they tried to do with the IOOF senior staff.
The same can be said for ASIC in the Westpac and other cases.
These Regulators need to be taken to task by government. There needs to be an audit watchdog reviewing the performance of the regulators.
APRA never used to regulate like this and were most successful working with industry to resolve issues and build best practice. Now they are after scalps like ASIC. And who pays for all of this incompetence – the Australian public!
A test case in failure and wasted money
Typical - no mention of the loss to IOOF unit holders of this fund’s lack of business governance and probity.
Typical. Government funded left wing activist with too much time on their hands poking jabs at hard working individuals solely for perverse self-righteous pleasure.
Test case? Testing their ability to prepare a case? Testing their ability to understand the law? Perhaps just testing how much money they can spend/make running court battles? If not, why not indeed.
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