Pressure is clearly mounting within the Australian superannuation industry for a single financial services regulator.
That is the bottom line of the latest IUS/Super Review Super Outlook survey conducted in November and December, last year, including at the Association of Superannuation Fundsof Australia national conference in Perth.
The survey outcome reflects a growing view within the financial services sector that the industry is not being well-served by the so-called ‘twin peaks’ model of the AustralianSecurities and InvestmentsCommission (ASIC) and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).
The survey pointed out to respondents that superannuation was currently subject to regulation by three bodies — APRA, ASIC and the Australian Taxation Office — and asked whether they believed it was being over-regulated.
A significant majority (63 per cent) of respondents said the industry was being over-regulated while an even greater number (72.2 per cent) said they believed the industry would be better served by having a single regulator.
However, the survey results suggested financial planners were much more concerned about the level of regulation than people working directly within the superannuation sector. When the responses of financial planners were removed from the survey result it was revealed that little more than half of the respondents believed the industry was being over-regulated.
That said, there was little or no change in views with respect to the need for a single regulator.
The survey results are interesting in circumstances where key industry participants are clearly divided in their view on the current regulatory structure, with the chief executive of the Investment and Financial Services Association, Richard Gilbert, telling last year’s Financial Planning Association national conference that he still supported the ‘twin peaks’ regulatory model.
