ASIC’s red tape reduction unit ‘working on’ new initiatives to improve compliance

Launched late last year, ASIC announced the unit in an effort to minimise regulatory burden on financial services, including the advice sector.

Speaking at the AICD Governance Summit on Thursday, 3 March, chair Joe Longo said the team, which reports directly to him, is focused on the regulator’s work from a “functional perspective” and aims to remove “unnecessary frictions” in its interactions with the industry and to drive better compliance.

“While work of this nature was already underway within ASIC, the unit will coordinate this work, as well as complementing it with other initiatives,” Mr Longo said.

“The team has so far met with more than 70 external stakeholders, and is working on identifying a range of initiatives that will improve the efficiency of our interactions with our regulated population.”

Last month, the executive director of the Association of Independently Owned Financial Professionals (AIOFP), Peter Johnston, proposed the creation of a panel of experienced advisers and ASIC to tackle compliance which he said could be achieved through “fair and reasonable adjustments”.

“Politicians and ASIC need to understand that the advice community wants the ‘bad eggs’ removed more than anyone else and we will not protect them,” Mr Johnston said in a recent email.

“It is fruitless having a panel of academics who have not worked in our industry making critical decisions that [impact] on the practically of the industry and therefore the cost of advice to consumers.”

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.