ASIC has a case to answer, says Frydenberg
In a significant break with previous Government rhetoric, the Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg has signalled he wants to know why the financial services regulators did not act on key issues raised at the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry.
Speaking on national radio, Frydenberg made clear his questions about the effectiveness of the regulators suggesting they had a case to answer.
“… there's certainly a case to answer here for the regulators because a lot of these activities they were aware of,” he said. “I mean there's been fees for no service, fees to dead people, examples of lying to regulators and at the same time we saw just last week, 300,000 alleged breaches by a company providing unsolicited insurance advice to the public.”
“Now this is certainly not good enough. I want to understand why ASIC did not stamp out this bad behaviour and didn't engender a better culture within the financial services sector.”
“Clearly we need to understand better why the regulators didn't take harder, more definitive action against these companies,” Frydenberg said.
“Now we have got a Royal Commissioner who is doing an outstanding job. He has been very professional, very deliberate.” he said “The Government awaits his interim report which is due at the end of this month and then his formal report in February. I have said that if he would like more time to undertake his report and his activities, then the Government will favourably consider that. But we will leave no stone unturned in getting a better financial system, which is better customer-focused, for the Australian people.”
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