A report on the first nine months of the breach reporting regime released by the corporate regulator on Thursday (27 October) revealed that only 6 per cent of the licensee population lodged a report.
Moreover, 74 per cent of all reports were lodged by just 23 licensees.
ASIC was quite underwhelmed by the take-up and said it would undertake a “number of activities” to strengthen compliance with the regime.
But the corporate regulator also confirmed that from next year, it could start naming the licensees reporting the breaches.
This year, it conceded, “data with a high degree of granularity” was lacking, but noted that its “approach to reporting will evolve over time, as the regime matures”.
“We will consider our approach to the 2023 publication early next year, including whether it should include a list of all licensees who have reported to ASIC during the period. We will consult with stakeholders in advance of the commencement of more granular public reporting,” the corporate regulator said.
This year, ASIC kept the names and details of licensees out of the report as it felt that comparisons between licensees would be unlikely to provide “meaningful insights” given the current inconsistencies in reporting practices.
These inconsistencies, ASIC said, were mostly caused by “implementation challenges”.
“The scale of the changes and the principles-based nature of the regime have led to challenges in the implementation of the new regime,” the corporate regulator acknowledged.
The breach reporting regime was first introduced in October last year and instructs Australian Financial Services (AFS) licensees and credit licensees to submit notifications about “reportable situations” to ASIC within 30 calendar days.
But by August, the corporate regulator acknowledged concerns with the regime, with commissioner Sean Hughes conceding at the time the presence of implementation challenges.
“We are aware that the regime has led to a number of implementation challenges,” Mr Hughes said. “However, ASIC remains committed to the successful implementation of this regime, and we have developed a comprehensive plan of work to ensure that it meets its objectives for ASIC, industry, and consumers.”
ASIC’s first report, published last week, revealed that of the 8,829 reports submitted to the regulator in the nine-month period, only 878 were related to financial advice.
And when does the Industry begin naming & shaming individuals within ASIC who demonstrate shameful behaviour, overreach, incompetence, etc?
If ASIC starts naming and shaming that’s only going to encourage less licensees to report breaches, not more! duh!
Is it just me or is everyone sick of the word ASIC? I think they need to rebrand themselves because I am sick of them and all their regulation whilst not living in the real world. ASIC aren’t committed to anything but their own agenda – walking around with a big stick hurting the mental health of advisers and scaring the dealergroups who then feel they must put in even tougher compliance with not so much as an apology for it saying but ASIC we think/interpret are saying we have to. ASIC are so bloody unclear in what they are saying half the time they should be viewed as the joke they are. Maybe we should name and shame them?
How breach reports did ASIC staff lodge against themselves for being so utterly out of touch with reality ?
Wow small AFSL’s not breach reporting and meeting their AFSL obligations. Who would of thought!
Maybe ASIC should be looking at the Licenses who are not reporting as the threshold to report is so low its highly unlikely anyone has not needed to lodge!
So the licensees who do the right thing will be publicly named and shamed by ASIC for so doing, yet ASIC wants many more to start reporting breaches, so they can be named and shamed as well? This is one of the most ridiculous pieces of bureaucratic, BS management and illogical thinking, that only an organisation as morally insensitive as ASIC could produce. Sort of like the old days when police bashed confessions out of alleged criminals then stood up in court and claimed it as valid evidence of the criminal’s guilt. Get real ASIC, you have to share the financial world with all of us who are out here trying to help clients. You are trying to just make our job bloody impossible!
Over Regulation again and if you do the right thing we will put your name up in lights.
ASIC you should be more concerned about those Licencees that are [b]not[/b] reporting and asked to explain why and how.