The corporate regulator released the details on Thursday which state that “a person must not offer a financial product to a retail client in the course of or because of unsolicited, real-time contact” and that “a consumer must consent to being contacted, and that consent must be positive, voluntary and clear”.
“These changes put in place fairness protections, so consumers are not sold products they don’t want or don’t need. The restrictions mean consumer needs will be central to how firms offer products,” ASIC deputy chair Karen Chester said.
“The new hawking prohibition addresses long-held concerns about poor consumer outcomes from unsolicited sales of financial products. ASIC’s 2018 review of unsolicited life insurance sales calls revealed poor sales conduct and poor consumer outcomes, with 40 per cent of consumers feeling under pressure to buy a product.
“This led to recent criminal proceedings for the hawking of life insurance, and to date ASIC has helped secure over $250 million in consumer remediation for consumer credit insurance and life insurance.”
ASIC has taken on feedback from industry stakeholders on the reforms since July, ahead of the 5 October start date.
“The reforms introduced by the government mean that consumers will be able to control how and when they are offered products, rather than being caught unawares or feeling pressured to make quick decisions,” Ms Chester said.
“Under the new laws, ASIC will be better able to tackle poor conduct by firms where consumers are pressured into products that are not right for them.”
Click here for more details.
Highlights how hopeless ASIC is. Too busy going after licensed advisers.
To avoid the law, you just employ a call centre and fill it with Backpackers that have no idea about anti hawking and get them to make alarmist and ridiculous assertions about some piece of tax policy or super law, without any mention of “financial products or services” and then they’ll ask the consumer if they want to be contacted. Therefore getting around this legislation. Hopefully this modification will prevent this, but it really does question why ASIC have been so slow when this law came into effect decades ago.