APRA and ASIC pledge to avoid ‘unnecessary regulatory burden’ with FAR Bill

Appearing at a Senate economics committee on Thursday (27 January), APRA executive Sean Carmody discussed preparation of the Financial Accountability Regime (FAR) legislation – which will see the regime impose accountability, key personnel, deferred remuneration and notification obligations on directors and senior executives – and will be administered by APRA and ASIC.

“This will require coordination and cooperation to ensure the FAR’s objectives are achieved efficiently and without imposing unnecessary regulatory burden,” Mr Carmody said.

“These efforts build on the activities already being undertaken across areas where the regulators have been working together more closely and on the Memorandum of Understanding in place between the regulators.”

One of the “key pieces” underway ahead of the legislation’s commencement in July is a public joint administration agreement that will cover areas including “oversight of the arrangements, exercising of powers, industry communication, information sharing and enforcement and investigations”.

In the same hearing, a number of groups including the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) and the Financial Services Council (FSC) raised concerns about the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort (CSLR).

AFA chief executive Phil Anderson, who was also representing CPA Australia and the Financial Planning Association of Australia (FPA), slammed Treasury’s proposal of the bill, which would see the sector would pay over $12 million of the $16 million levy cost in its first year.

“We are also concerned about a model that is disproportionately funded by financial advisers, the majority of who are themselves small business owners,” Mr Anderson said.

“We question the equity and sustainability of the proposed model.”

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.