Licensees granted three years grace on planner compliance
Financial planning licensees have been formally granted a three-year exemption from the need to ensure their advisers are members of an industry compliance scheme, following the Government’s decision to abandon code-monitoring bodies.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) issued a statement today stating it had “taken action to provide certainty to Australian financial services (AFS) licensees that they will not be in breach of the law because their financial advisers were not able to register with an ASIC-approved compliance scheme by 1 January 2020, as originally required”.
“ASIC has granted a three-year exemption to all AFS licensees from the obligation in the Corporations Act 2001 to ensure that their financial advisers are covered by a compliance scheme and from the associated notification obligations,” the regulator’s statement said.
ASIC said its action had followed the Government’s decision to accelerate the establishment of a single disciplinary body for financial advisers and the withdrawal of applications for ASIC approval of a compliance scheme.
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