{"id":25756,"date":"2014-04-01T15:21:29","date_gmt":"2014-04-01T05:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/?p=25756"},"modified":"2014-04-01T15:21:29","modified_gmt":"2014-04-01T05:21:29","slug":"fofa-debate-rages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2014\/04\/01\/fofa-debate-rages\/","title":{"rendered":"FoFA Debate Rages"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Acting Assistant Treasurer\u2019s decision to put the Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) amendment regulations on hold has reignited the war of words between industry stakeholders.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Last week, Senator Mathias Cormann<\/strong>, announced he would not introduce regulations to amend FoFA until he had consulted with industry stakeholders (see: Cormann Calls Halt to FoFA Regulations<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"Brad<\/a>
Brad Fox, AFA CEO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) said the delay was disappointing but that it hoped the pause would return the debate to a facts-based discussion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe now have a window of opportunity for the reintroduction of facts and integrity into the FoFA amendments debate,\u201d said AFA CEO, Brad Fox<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is surprising that sensible and pragmatic amendments have generated such vigorous debate and broad exposure. It is clear that the debate is now based upon what people think of the erroneous claims, rather than a detailed and informed analysis of the specific amendments.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow is the time to question why and how this has happened and to consider the vested interests at play,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

We now have a window of opportunity for the reintroduction of facts<\/h6>\n

Mr Fox argued that Australians had been exposed to a relentless campaign of misinformation, exaggeration and scaremongering. He said it was in the consumer interest to test these claims.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe systematic destruction of consumer confidence in financial advice is highly damaging to the financial future of Australians and Australia. It\u2019s time for the fairy tales to end and for all parties to act in the genuine best interests of consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ISA<\/a>
ISA CEO, David Whitely<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Industry Super Australia (ISA) CEO, David Whitely<\/strong>, said the organisation welcomed the willingness of Senator Cormann to re-look at the detail.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be in the interests of everyone to try and reach a consensus on what is workable and places the interests of consumers at the forefront.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately consumers will be served by vigorous competition among product providers on the features and merits of their products, not what financial incentives are offered to advisers for their recommendation,\u201d Mr Whitely said.<\/p>\n

He said the ISA would work with the Government, the finance sector and senior and consumer groups to try and find a consensus that delivered a strong public policy outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe status of the advice industry and its aspirations are inextricably linked to community trust and confidence in it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Adding his voice to the discussion, Connect Financial Service Brokers\u2019 CEO, Paul Tynan<\/strong>, said the legislation was far too important to rush and additional comment and scrutiny would be beneficial for all.<\/p>\n

…many are putting their own interests far ahead of the industry and consumer<\/h6>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an unfortunate reality that the overabundance of special interest groups lobbying so intensely in the support of their specific sector, business or association is not helping the situation and regrettably many are putting their own interests far ahead of the industry and consumer,\u201d said Mr Tynan.<\/p>\n

However, Mr Tynan did lament the fact that advisers were being forced to endure another period of uncertainty.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe need to move forward has never been so important or paramount. I can only repeat that it is the financial advisers that continue to be the main casualties \u2013 especially those that have been unable to buy and sell businesses because of the grandfathering issue. This too is having an effect on consumer confidence and the reputation of the sector as a whole,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Acting Assistant Treasurer\u2019s decision to put the Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) amendment regulations on hold has reignited the war of words between industry stakeholders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[282,8],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-25756","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-associations","7":"category-compliance-regulation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25756\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}