Planning - the most heavily scrutinised sector
The financial services industry and, in particular, the financial planning sector has been the subject of around 14 reviews, inquiries and reports since 2009, according to an analysis compiled by the Financial Services Council (FSC).
The FSC has pointed to the number of Parliamentary reviews of the sector as part of its response to the Australian Labor Party seeking to initiate a further Senate Committee inquiry into the operations of the Commonwealth Bank's financial planning businesses and the broader question of the Government's regulatory changes to the Labor's Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) legislation.
The FSC analysis pointed to the 2009 starting point as being the Parliamentary Joint Committee into Corporations and Financial Services processes which became known as the Ripoll Inquiry inquiry and then followed that through to the present day via committee inquiries and reports into issues such as Stronger Super and the Tax Agents Services Act.
The FSC analysis also pointed to the fact that the Financial Systems Inquiry was also on foot and that that the Senate Economics References Committee report which had traversed Commonwealth Financial Planning and the performance of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) had only been tabled in the past three weeks.
"The financial advice industry has been through several inquiries since the GFC which have resulted in significant legislative changes," FSC chief executive, John Brogden said. "We are still in the process of implementing the MySuper, FoFA and TASA regimes which are the result of inquiries into all aspects of financial services practises from 2009 to date."
While the Federal Opposition leader, Bill Shorten, has signalled the Labor Party wants its further Senate Review to traverse the issues which gave rise to the Commonwealth Financial Planning (CommFP) enforceable undertaking, ASIC has yet to disclose the changed licensing conditions which will be imposed on the Commonwealth Bank financial planning businesses.
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