The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has declared that it is agnostic with respect to how it treats industry and retail superannuation.
When asked whether a $12,500 penalty imposed on a retail superannuation fund would be similarly imposed on an industry fund, ASIC chair, James Shipton, declared that the regulator was agnostic with respect to the types of funds it was dealing with.
NSW Liberal back-bencher, Jason Falinksi had used a hearing of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services to ask whether ASIC had recently successfully fined a retail super fund $12,500 for advertising on Google AdWords, where if somebody put in the term ‘industry superannuation’ an ad came up for that fund.
Falinksi asked what power ASIC had used to impose the penalty and whether the regulator intended to impose it equally, across the board.
Shipton chose to take Falinksi’s questions on notice, but added, “… I want to take this opportunity to assure you that we take our obligations seriously with regard to enforcing the law across the board for any type. We are agnostic as to the type of superannuation fund and we are agnostic as to the label they may or may not attach to themselves. Our focus really is on trustee obligations, and that agnostic approach is our strategy”.
