The increased public scrutiny of the financial sector is likely to continue over the next twelve months, after two more Parliamentary inquiries were requested last week.
Dissatisfied with the Government’s amendments to the Future of Financial Advice legislation, Labor Senator, Sam Dastyari, has called for another review into the protections afforded to financial advice consumers.
On 4 September, Senator Dastyari moved that an inquiry be undertaken by the Senate Economics References Committee into the implications of the FoFA regime.
Senator Dastyari has requested that the inquiry look into:
- The current level of consumer protections
- The role of, and oversight by, regulatory agencies in preventing the provision of unethical and misleading financial advice
- Whether existing mechanisms are appropriate in any compensation process relating to unethical or misleading financial advice and instances where these mechanisms may have failed
- Mechanisms, including a centralised register, that would ensure financial planners found to have breached any law or professional standards in their employment are transparent, for both the sector and consumers
- How financial services providers and companies have responded to misconduct in the industry
- Other regulatory or legislative reforms that would prevent misconduct and any related matters
The Committee was asked to report on the matter by the first sitting day of July 2015, indicating it will be some time before the advice sector is out of the spotlight. The Committee has yet to publish the formal terms of reference for the inquiry, or to call for submissions.
Meanwhile, the Government’s FoFA amendments Bill, which passed the House of Representatives on 28 August (see: FoFA Bill Passes House of Reps) has again been referred to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee (SELC) for review. This will be the second time the SELC has conducted an inquiry into the Bill, having delivered a report on its contents in June this year (see: Green Light for FoFA Amendments). Submissions for the new inquiry close 15 September 2014 and the report is due by the end of this month.
The new inquiries follow in the footsteps of a current review being undertaken by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services (PJC) into proposals to lift the professional, ethical and education standards in the financial services industry. Submissions have now closed, and the PJC is due to provide its report later this year. For more detail on the submissions lodged by key industry stakeholders, click here.
Senator Sam Dastyari should be ashamed of himself. In typical Labor fashion he has called for yet another review, think tank, committee, and assessment process.Would Sam Dastyari disclose the exact cost to the Australian taxpayer of these continuing Parliamentary enquiry’s.?
I don’t think so.This is the reason why Labor under both Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard failed dismally at governing the country because there were so many people employed in committees assessing ideas,debating and producing hugely expensive reports and papers that nothing got done.
Labor are like a dog with a bone with FOFA, because it’s the only thing they can “appear” to be the champion of the consumer with and the “protector of all”.
Between Dastyari, Bowen and Shorten, they haven’t got an original idea amongst them, so they continue to wheel out the “Storm ” rhetoric like a cracked record.
Shorten is morphing back into a Labor Union Rep and Dastyari’s recent performance on ABC’s Q&A program was simply uninspiring.
Consumer protection in any area is paramount and FOFA in its revised form, offers appropriate protection.
This is all about politics and nothing else.
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