ASIC, APRA, ACCC to appear before House economics committee this week

ASIC, APRA and the ACCC will front the public hearing on Friday, 10 September, which will be split into two parts.

All three regulators will give evidence on the implications of capital concentration and common ownership in Australia, which will be the first public hearing in support of the committee’s inquiry.

“We need to be sure we are empowering citizens as investors and customers, and not organised capital,” committee chair Tim Wilson said.

“The committee is looking forward to hearing the views of the ACCC, ASIC and APRA on this important topic.”

The second part of the hearing will see the committee continue its public review of the 2020 annual reports of ASIC and APRA, which both regulators discussed at a hearing this past March.

“When ASIC and APRA appeared before the committee earlier this year, we were keen to understand how they had responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, and to the associated economic stimulus measures taken by government,” Mr Wilson said.

“The committee is looking forward to following up on some of these questions.

“It is important that the Australian people have insight into the steps that our regulators are taking to promote resilience within the Australian economy during this time of uncertainty.”

ASIC also appeared at a parliamentary hearing late last month where ASIC commissioner Danielle Press addressed incoming regulations, including changes to information sharing, breach reporting and hawking, which are set to commence next month.

“We are working collectively and constructively with the advice industry and the superannuation industry to ensure that they, firstly, understand what their obligations are, but also to take what is a facilitative approach to those funds and those advisers that are making their best efforts to comply with the law,” Ms Press said.

“We understand that there is a confluence of regulation coming into play on the 5th of October, and we are cognisant that industry is struggling to get their heads around some of it and we are working with them pretty closely.”

The corporate regulator on Tuesday released its guidance on the new breach reporting regulations, which state that AFS licensees will be required to report breaches found after 1 October 2021 even if they occurred prior to that date.

Neil Griffiths

Neil is the Deputy Editor of the wealth titles, including ifa and InvestorDaily.

Neil is also the host of the ifa show podcast.