ASIC steps back from adviser training regulation

In yet another proposed update to the current minimum standards for financial product advisers, RG146, the regulator admitted that courses and providers listed on the training register were only ever assessed via submitted paperwork, with no audits or site visits performed.

This meant the training register “did not add the value or quality assurance that it was perceived to add,” ASIC conceded.

“We consider that it is time that ASIC step back from the role of approving training courses in relation to financial product advice,” ASIC said in its Assessment and approval of training courses for financial product advisers: Update to RG 146 (CP215).

ASIC said its role is not to regulate training courses and that educational regulatory bodies are better placed than ASIC to do so.

ASIC proposed to implement a new class order, which would come into effect from April next year, under which training providers would self-assess courses, while accredited training providers and industry bodies would also be able assess courses delivered by other training course providers.

However with ASIC’s proposal to increase minimum standards under CP 212 not due to complete its phase in until 2019 this leaves a period where the current problem of trainers self-assessing RG146 candidates who are then effectively accredited will go unchecked.

Submissions to CP215 are due by 30 September.