Financial services industry ready to work with Labor

Jo-Anne Bloch

Australia’s major financial services organisations have vowed to work with the new Labor Government to implement specific policy changes capable of benefiting the financial services industry.

As well, the chief executive of the Financial Planning Association, Jo-Anne Bloch, said her organisation was prepared to be a part of the consultation process around a review of the financial services industry previously foreshadowed by the Labor Party spokesman on retirement incomes and financial services, Senator Nick Sherry.

Bloch, along with the chief executive of the Investment and Financial Services Association, Richard Gilbert, and the deputy chief executive of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia, Brad Pragnell, congratulated the newly-elected Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, and vowed to work with the new Labor Government.

From the FPA’s point of view, Bloch said there were elements of the ALP’s policy on financial services that were welcome including the promise to cut red tape, which she said would help pull down the cost of providing financial advice.

Bloch said she was also heartened to note that a number of senior Labor front-benchers had publicly recognised the value of advice.

Bloch, Gilbert and Pragnell all supported the ALP’s support for a stronger and more efficient superannuation sector, including the possible extension of the co-contribution regime and the implementation of a soft compulsion regime capable of lifting personal superannuation contributions.

Gilbert said he was also pleased to note the ALP’s support for financial services exports, including an undertaking by Kevin Rudd that senior Labor ministers would lead delegations to further Australia’s financial services export interests.