Licensee codes of conduct impractical: Kell
Creating licensee-specific codes of conduct is an option - but there are some real challenges for anyone who wants to go down that route, according to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) Commissioner Peter Kell.
Kell told Money Management that, because of the role codes of conduct could play in obviating the need for the opt-in requirement, the regulator could see why licensees were thinking about creating their own codes.
However, he pointed to various potential downsides.
"Administering a code, monitoring compliance with a code, enforcing the rules around the code - it's not a straightforward matter," Kell said.
"It requires resources, a rigorous approach, and we'd want to see that as part of any code that comes forward."
There is also an issue around the way in which codes are governed, Kell said.
"Typically, we like to see some sort of independence, some sort of oversight for a code that means that there's an independent eye cast over its operations," he said.
"That's obviously a little more challenging with an entity-specific code."
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