ASIC rebuffs allegations of former employee
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has taken the extraordinary step of formally rejecting claims made by one its former lawyer employees.
The regulator yesterday issued a formal statement saying it "rejects completely" the comments made under parliamentary privilege by the former employee James Wheeldon about ASIC's granting of relief in relation to generic super fund calculators in 2004/05.
Further, ASIC said it would be making a full response to the allegation when it appears before the Senate Economics Reference committee later this month.
The allegations made by Wheeldon related to ASIC's granting of legal relief in relation to the use by super funds of generic online calculators, with the former staffer pointing to heavy lobbying by the Investment and Financial Services Association (now the Financial Services Council) and alleging that a lawyer who had been employed by MLC and seconded to ASIC had been unduly influential in the process.
In its statement yesterday, ASIC made clear that the matters which were the subject of the allegations had occurred 10 years ago, and that the calculators under discussion were a common tool used by consumers to get an indication of the money they would have on retirement.
"Without such legal relief, super funds would be unable to provide this useful consumer tool," the ASIC statement said.
It said that Wheeldon, who spent nine months at ASIC in 2004, had appeared before the Senate Economics References Committee and, "under parliamentary privilege, made accusations about a number of ASIC staff, in relation to providing all super funds the ability to allow their members to use online calculators".
AUTHOR
Mike Taylor
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