Stockbrokers oppose royal commission

In a statement, the Stockbrokers and Financial Advisers Association (SAFAA) said the royal commission on misconduct in the financial services industry, announced by the Turnbull government last week, could result in “unnecessary regulation” of the stockbroking industry.

SAFAA chief executive Andrew Green said the stockbroking industry was already well-regulated, evidenced by the “miniscule number” of complaints about stockbrokers to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

“For the year ended June 2017, FOS received a total of 39,479 disputes. Of these, only 0.003 per cent related to stockbroking,” he said.

“That figure was achieved in the context of 100 million trades on Australian stock exchanges during the 2017 June quarter. That is more than 1.5 million trades every day. Out of all those trades, only eight complaints were found in favour of applicants for a whole year.”

Mr Green said “it would be a complete waste of time and taxpayers’ money” for the royal commission to focus on the stockbroking industry, adding that further regulation and “red tape” would risk existing firms being driven out of business.

“This will be a bad outcome for Australia,” he said.

Last week, FPA chief executive Dante de Gori told ifa that the royal commission should focus its investigation on areas of the financial services industry that have not already been examined.