Regulator accused of causing confusion
Opposition parliamentarian Ed Husic has claimed the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is 'walking both sides of the street’ in taking a facilitative approach to regulating the implementation of the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) legislation.
ASIC has stated on a number of occasions that it would not take a heavy-handed approach to breaches of the FOFA regulations during the 12-month implementation period unless there were obvious and definite breaches of the law.
ASIC deputy chair Peter Kell restated this position at the Money Management/Super Review Future of Financial Service Regulation breakfast in Sydney this morning, claiming there was widespread misunderstanding around this approach.
Kell said the facilitative approach was not uncommon with this type of legislation and ASIC did the same with the introduction of new credit laws a few years ago.
“As long as firms make reasonable attempts to comply, we will not be heavy-handed in our approach. The final changes to FOFA are an issue for Government and in the meantime ASIC will not change its facilitative approach announced in December. If we do we will announce it very clearly.”
However Husic, who is Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer, claimed that ASIC was not able to regulate FOFA as the law currently stood while taking this approach, which it was required to do under its rules of operation.
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