Super pressure paused RG 97 implementation
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has admitted that significant pressure from the superannuation industry and elsewhere led to it placing the implementation of Regulatory Guide 97 (RG 97), dealing with disclosing fees and costs in product disclosure statements, on hold.
Facing tough questioning in Senate Estimates, ASIC deputy chairman, Peter Kell, admitted that the level of concern coming from across the industry and from key industry bodies was such that the regulator felt it had to place RG 97 implementation on hold.
“Participants right across the superannuation sector had raised a series of concerns around the requirements that were being developed around disclosure under regulatory guide 97,” he said. “There were a series of very difficult and technical issues that were proving quite challenging to resolve.”
“We thought it would be useful and valuable to, if you like, press the pause button for a short period to enable an expert to come in and help resolve some of those issues and undertake some effective consultation,” Kell said. “In effect, we're putting up our hands and saying, 'The process that we undertook was not as efficient as we wanted it to be’.”
Kell said that experienced international regulator, Darren McShane was undertaking a review and had already met with well over 30 or 40 participants from across the sector.
“We still expect him to report by the middle of this year,” the ASIC chairman said.
He said the RG 97 regime would still be coming in, “but there were ongoing and significant issues around whether the regime was workable, whether the particular requirements were being interpreted correctly, whether there were practical ways that it could be improved."
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