ASIC refuses to budge on survey blunder
TheAustralian Securities and Investments Commission(ASIC) has refused to make any further moves in redressing the error which originally placed Brisbane-based Community and Corporate Financial Services (ComCorp) in the ‘poor’ category in its recent quality of advice survey.
ASIC executive director consumer protection Peter Kell says the peak regulatory body is not intending to go beyond its existing efforts to address the situation.
“We’ve issued a public apology, we’ve corrected the information that’s out there and we’ve written a joint ASIC/ Australian Consumers’ Association (ACA) letter which ComCorp is free to use,” Kell says.
However, ComCorp general manager Andrew Zietara argues that ASIC “hasn’t really made it public that they’ve made a mistake, they’ve put a one liner on their web site,” he says.
The report initially found that ComCorp didn’t provide an Advisory Services Guide (ASG), pushing it into a ‘poor’ classification instead of ‘good’.
“We believe our reputation has been damaged but they have refused to make a public apology. They’ve made an apology — a letter which is on our web site. But the damage that has been done is immeasurable,” Zietara says.
“The damage is very difficult to quantify as in this industry people [clients] can walk and you wouldn’t know what the reason behind their decision was, as are attempts to quantify the impact on potential business.”
A spokesperson for theFinancial Planning Associationsays the issue now is that the ACA, through itsChoicemagazine, has e-mailed all its members with the initial listing on performance despite ASIC issuing a joint apology.
“We’re concerned as it’s very damaging to the member [ComCorp]. We now want re-assurances that all the consumers which marked down that they were not provided with an ASG did not in fact receive one. We’re at a point now at which we need to reassure the industry that the ratings in the report are appropriate,” the spokesperson says.
Zeitara says the firm will continue to liaise with its legal advisers.
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