FOFA disallowance motion ‘catastrophic’: FPA
The Financial Planning Association (FPA) has denounced the disallowance motion of the amendments to the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) Regulations being tabled in Senate today.
FPA chief executive Mark Rantall said the disallowance motion to be tabled today by the Opposition and cross-bench Senators will have a devastating effect on the financial services industry.
"If passed, this disallowance motion will continue five years of uncertainty for financial planners and their clients which commenced when the FOFA process began under the Labor Government."
This will have a catastrophic effect across the entirety of the financial services industry, one of the largest employers of people in Australia."
Rantall is concerned if the motion is passed, the sector will default into illegal activity,
"The industry has been adhering to these Regulations for nearly five months. This disallowance motion has the potential to put the entire financial services industry immediately into breach of the law."
Critical of the prior Minister and the original FOFA reforms, Rantall said they did not achieve the improvements in delivering advice to consumers as intended but were instead flanked with red tape which the current iteration of FOFA had addressed.
"The Coalition's amendments contained in the Regulation ensured the FoFA reforms remained intact in a sensible way that reduced red tape and maintained vital consumer protections" he said.
AUTHOR
Priya Prakash
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