Technology integral to improving disclosure: ASIC
The financial services industry is being urged to embrace technology to help boost consumers' understanding of financial products, by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
Announcing the launch of a new project, in association with Vanguard and AMP, to develop innovative digital financial product disclosure aimed at boosting investor knowledge, ASIC chairman, Greg Medcraft, said technology was key to improving the effectiveness of disclosure.
"We want investors to have trust and confidence in our financial system and part of that is for ASIC to explore new ways for investors to get to grips with their investments," he said.
"We encourage industry to harness the opportunities of digitisation. More and more, people are accessing financial products and making decisions using mobile devices.
"More work needs to be done on short disclosure. Investors tend to turn off when faced with wordy disclosure documents. If they need more detail, investors can access further layers of information from product providers online."
AUTHOR
Nicholas O'Donoghue
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