ASIC Critical of Delays in Fees-For-No-Service Reviews

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ASIC has expressed its disappointment in what it terms ‘unreasonable delays’ associated with further review programs around the fees-for-no-service failures of six leading financial institutions.

While it acknowledges the significant scale of the reviews, the regulator has nonetheless taken aim at the big four banks, AMP and Macquarie for their tardiness.

ASIC says the reviews relate to systemic failures over long periods – going back six to ten years – covering 36 licensees from the six institutions that currently authorise more than 7,000 advisers:

…we believe the institutions have failed to sufficiently prioritise and resource their reviews

“However, we believe the institutions have failed to sufficiently prioritise and resource their reviews, particularly as ASIC advised them to commence the reviews in mid-2015 or early 2016,” commented the regulator.

ASIC’s release details the main reasons for delays by the institutions as comprising:

  • Poor record-keeping and systems within the institutions, which mean that in many cases they have been unable to access customer files for review
  • Failure by some institutions to propose reasonable customer-centric methodologies to identify and compensate customers
  • A legalistic approach taken by some institutions towards determination of the services they were required to provide

Click here to access a more detailed and individualised summary released by ASIC into each institution’s approach to addressing their further reviews.