ASIC claims to have planners in its regulatory ranks
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has claimed that “many” of its staff have previously spent time in the financial services and some of them have even provided advice to clients or been paraplanners.
In doing so, the regulator has also sought to claim that, just like financial services licensees, it knows what it is like to meet the demands of an ASIC notice.
Answering questions on notice from the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, ASIC defended the level of empathy its staff were likely to have with licensees encountering demands from a regulator.
Queensland Liberal back-bencher, Bert Van Mannen had asked whether ASIC had “in the trenches” experiences with an AFSL, in reply the regulator said that many of its staff “have previously spent time working in the financial services industry”.
“For example, the financial advisers team includes team members who have provided advice to clients, have been paraplanners or have had compliance roles at advice licensees. This advice industry experience is complemented by team members who have worked in other financial services sectors as well as in legal, accounting and regulatory roles,” the ASIC answer to Van Mannen said.
“ASIC’s compulsory information-gathering powers are an important and necessary part of the work we do. We are very aware that some ASIC notices require significant time and effort to properly respond to. We only issue notices when it is necessary to do so and we always endeavour to provide a reasonable timeframe to respond”.
“ASIC is aware of the implications of receiving a notice and indeed has itself responded to many notices in the past, most recently in the context of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry.”
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