Tuesday 22 May 2007 LAWFUEL- The Law News Wire – The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is conducting a review of its policy on retail financial adviser training standards (Policy Statement 146 Licensing: training of financial product advisers). ASIC has begun to meet with key stakeholders, and will continue to do so over the coming weeks to help identify the key issues and options for the review.
The review was first foreshadowed in the Parliamentary Secretary’s Corporate and Financial Services Regulation Review – Proposals Paper released in November 2006. ASIC will release a public consultation paper in July to seek broad input on the review. ASIC considers that, generally speaking, minimum training standards are appropriate for people providing financial product advice to retail clients. The minimum standards in PS 146 have been in place for a number of years, and advisers and licensees have expended considerable time and money obtaining the relevant training. ASIC is not planning to fundamentally revisit the current training standards.
We anticipate that the review will focus on: • the appropriateness of current training standards towards the perimeter of the financial advice regime, and in particular, the appropriateness of the current standards for providers of general advice and providers of advice on general insurance products; • the description of the knowledge and skills categories in Appendix A of the policy (e.g. whether the categories should be broken down into a larger number of narrower categories); • the administration and ease-of-use of ASIC’s training register (including how courses are placed onto the register); and • recognition of prior study and training. Initial meetings with stakeholders suggest that there may be industry concerns about the quality of some courses on the training register and how up to date they are.
ASIC would welcome any further information stakeholders are able to provide on this topic. Please submit any contributions to: Jesse Vermiglio Regulatory Policy
Email: jesse.vermiglio@asic.gov.au Fax: 03 9280 3306 Post: GPO Box 9827, MELBOURNE VIC 3001 Copies of PS 146 can be obtained from the ASIC Infoline by calling 1300 300 630 or from the ASIC website at www.asic.gov.au/ps Copies of the Parliamentary Secretary’s Corporate and Financial Services Regulation Review – Proposals Paper (November 2006) can be obtained from The Treasury website at www.treasury.gov.au For further information contact: Michael van Maanen ASIC Media Unit Telephone: 02 9911 2658 Mobile: 0412 500 351 Page 2 of 2
