Iress flags industry-wide DDO solution

In a statement released on Monday, Iress said the impact of the DDO rules on advice businesses was wide-ranging and demanded a collaborative approach.

“The impact of this legislation is broad and multi-dimensional and there is currently no industry-wide solution for the distribution, storage, and management of target market determinations or a mechanism to coordinate complaints and reporting obligations,” Iress chief commercial officer Michael Blomfield said.

“We believe an industry-wide technology-based solution is required to materially reduce the complexity and cost of building and managing DDO obligations for the industry. The breadth and interconnectedness of this regulation requires almost every part of the industry to find a cost-effective and scalable way to forge connections in what is a relatively short space of time.”

Mr Blomfield said the group was “well advanced” in delivering a solution to facilitate easier compliance with the obligations, which were due to come into force in October. 

The news comes following Iress’ earlier efforts in 2020 to gain an industry consensus on managing fee consent requirements ahead of the passage of royal commission legislation.

“During 2020 we successfully brought together multiple stakeholders to define an industry advice fee consent solution,” Mr Blomfield said. 

“DDO is the natural next application of this solution, to allow for the distribution, storage and management of TMDs and complaints.”