Handing down the standing committee on economics’ report on ASIC, Mr Wilson roundly criticised ASIC for the slew of failures that hounded it through the latter half of 2020, saying the corporate regulator “must be beyond reproach in its governance and accountability”.
“ASIC has a lot of work to do to rebuild its credibility and confidence with the committee, and likely the wider business and Australian community. Declining confidence did not originate with the investigations into the chair and deputy chair, though it has substantially compounded it,” Mr Wilson said.
“While it remains a matter for the Treasurer, these issues justify consideration for reform of ASIC to help rebuild confidence in its capacity, so it fulfils the important statutory functions the Parliament entrusts it with.”
Mr Wilson also said that the committee remained concerned about the “spectacular and unsupportable claims” contained within ASIC’s self-managed super fund (SMSF) fact sheet – that appeared to exaggerate the costs of running an SMSF – saying that while the matter “may appear trivial” it was indication that the regulator was holding itself to a different standard than those businesses it regulated.
“To date there has been no acknowledgement of this error, and apology for it. Instead ASIC has stood by it and claimed that new data has simply superseded it. This attitude undermines ASIC’s credibility. Had a regulated business made similarly misleading statements about a competitor product they would face sanction,” he said.
Mr Wilson warned that ASIC would have to lift its game in 2021 and prove to the standing committee that it had accepted responsibility for its failings and was focused on its “core duties of enforcement”.
“It is difficult to say that there is as much confidence in ASIC today as there was at the same time last year and ASIC should seek to address these issues as a matter of urgency because they go to the heart of their capacity and internal processes,” Mr Wilson said.
Its called the Donald Trump syndrome. Lie to cover up your lies
The comments about the SMSF report are good to see. Mr Wilson should should also comment about the LIF report where it was found that was little churn. The report itself cherry picked stats to suit an agenda. Now look at the state of the insurance industry, it’s an absolute mess.
Rebuilding their credibility assumes they had any credibility to begin with.
Interesting that Wilson would use the phrase “competitor product”. ASIC is not a product provider. But it is quite clearly aligned with union superannuation funds and treats everyone else as competitors to be beaten, rather than regulating all industry participants impartially.
Please please please please reform ASIC! Removing the employee tainted mongrel lawyers that Medcraft, Kell, Shipton all appointed would be a good start, especially any commissioners or management that originated under a Labor appointment.
And Tim, 12 months ago there was zero confidence in ASIC, so now we’re hitting the negative numbers.
“Had a regulated business made similarly misleading statements about a competitor product they would face sanction”, is akin to forecasting wild 10% returns on a “low risk” investment. ASIC is not doing their job of being objective, apolitical or respectful of trustees or independent practitioners ability, creating even less trust in our institutions. Where is the leadership ?
The sad thing is that I don’t think it is intentional, many of them just don’t know what happens on the ground.
Loving Tim Wilson’s work the last 6 months – even better that he’s my local Federal MP. ASIC has NO credibility from within the advice community in my opinion and other advisers I speak to a regular basis.
It’s falsified and misleading official reports over the last few years have damaged the industry terribly, for no good reason other than hidden agendas. The way they lambaste and hold advisers to account for trivial matters is a massive frustration to advisers just trying to do the right thing by their clients. I lost absolute faith in them when I attended an industry event prior to LIF reforms being presented to Parliament where ASIC representatives were present. This was just after Report 413. Advisers were pointing out major flaws with the points raised in that report to those ASIC representatives but none of them were taken on board. You could clearly see they had already made their decision and won’t open to accepting they’d made errors. It was only after that report and the legislation was released that day came clean with acknowledgement that mistakes have been made but by then, the damage had already been done.
ASIC is a disgraceful organisation with a clear hidden agenda IN MY opinion to force non-aligned advisers out of the industry. For what reason though – I’m unsure. Australia has a massive under insurance problem that’s only getting bigger now as a result of all the regulatory intervention and interference the last few years. There is more than enough business out there for everyone involved in the financial services industry to look after every day Australians with their insurance and financial planning needs and still earn an honest living. It appears to me that greed is a motivating factor for many external bodies in this industry. Thankfully one of those is being disbanded next year. Nuff said!
Tim Wilson is a self-serving hack. In his world it’s Tim first, the IPA second, the LNP third, Uncle Geoff’s funds management business 4th, daylight comes in 5th and the Australian taxpayer is somewhere back there at the end of the pack. Wilson isn’t interested in the financial planning profession unless it helps him progress the interest of items 1 – 4…..
Do as we say not as we do……ivory castle syndrome at its best!!