ASIC reveals a pretty modest and bland gifts and benefits register
From complimentary membership of the Qantas chairman’s club to a cashmere Mongolian wrap, Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s (ASIC’s) gifts and benefit register reflects a regulator whose personnel get handed lots of complimentary conference and seminar passes but not much else.
ASIC had provided its fits and benefit register as a result of a question on notice from the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services but if financial advisers and others believed the register would reveal large amounts of compromising corporate largesse then they were badly disappointed.
But what did attract at least some interest was the number of times ASIC personnel attended Australian Restructuring Insolvency & Turnaround Association (ARITA) events and whether Commissioner John Price’s complimentary membership of the Qantas chairman’s lounge was really only worth $500.
Advisers might also question what was entailed in the complimentary training of four staff to Human Manager Experience Training valued at $7,900 and which lucky ASIC executive score the $12,000 trip to Saudi Arabia covered by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority.
Source: ASIC
Recommended for you
Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones has shared further details on the second tranche of the Delivering Better Financial Outcomes reforms including modernising best interests duty and reforming Statements of Advice.
The Federal Court has found a company director guilty of operating unregistered managed investment schemes and carrying on a financial services business without holding an AFSL.
The Governance Institute has said ASIC’s governance arrangements are no longer “fit for purpose” in a time when financial markets are quickly innovating and cyber crime becomes a threat.
Compliance professionals working in financial services are facing burnout risk as higher workloads, coupled with the ever-changing regulation, place notable strain on staff.
