Joe Longo, senior adviser at law firm Herbert Smith Freehills, is the new chair of ASIC. Mr Longo worked as general counsel for Deutsche Bank in both London and Hong Kong for 17 years, prior to which he was ASIC’s national director for enforcement.
He replaces James Shipton, who opted to resign from his position in the wake of an expenses scandal despite ultimately being cleared of wrongdoing.
“Joe is known to many at the agency from his time as National Director of Enforcement from 1996-2000 and subsequent interactions as a lawyer at Herbert Smith Freehills,” Mr Shipton said in a statement.
“His wealth of domestic and international experience will serve ASIC well in the vital work it does in supporting the financial system and economy, especially as Australia recovers from the downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
ACCC commissioner Sarah Court will also join ASIC as its new deputy chair, replacing Daniel Crennan. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg hailed Ms Court’s “extensive experience in regulation, compliance, consumer protection and civil litigation” and congratulated both her and Mr Longo on their appointments.
“They are both highly qualified and experienced individuals with a deep understanding of both the private and public sectors. ASIC will benefit from their understanding of regulatory settings, insight into business and their strong leadership,” Mr Frydenberg said.
Also on the agenda – a new statement of expectations for ASIC that “will outline the Government’s priorities for and expectations of ASIC.”
“The statement will make clear that the Government expects the Commission, as a whole, to operate as a strategic board and that all operational matters are the responsibility of the chair, who is the accountable authority,” Mr Frydenberg said.
“The statement will also make clear that the Government expects ASIC to support Australia’s economic recovery from the COVID pandemic.”
Mr Frydenberg also announced the creation of the Financial Regulator Assessment Authority (FRAA) to provide an external framework for assessing the effectiveness of both APRA and ASIC. The FRAA will consist of three independent appointees together with the Treasury secretary and will be responsible for conducting reviews every two years and as directed by the Treasurer.
“In its first year, the FRAA will be tasked with assessing the effectiveness and capability of ASIC so as to assist the incoming chair in ensuring ASIC is operating effectively and consistent with the Government’s Statement of Expectations,” Mr Frydenberg said.
Let’s hope this new “statement of expectations” puts more emphasis on protecting consumers from bad financial advice no matter what the source. At the moment ASIC seems to think that indiscriminately persecuting all licensed advisers is the way to do this. Wrong. It only protects consumers from the small amount of bad advice given by licensed advisers. However it makes it more complicated and expensive for consumers to access the good advice given by a majority of licensed advisers. And it completely ignores unlicensed advice, which is where the vast majority of consumer harm occurs.
Why is no one questioning the 17yrs at Deutsche Bank? As the general counsel, he would have been operating during some of the most serious misconduct scandals in recent times such as 1MDB, Epstein and Danske Bank AML Not making the leap of faith to suggest involvement, but the level and rigor of due diligence in appointing him as ASIC Chair would be interesting to see. If he were not sufficiently senior to know of or inform questions on Deutchse Bank scandals, then you might questions whether they are senior enough for this position.
Financial Planners are low hanging fruit for policies to get votes, get photo opportunities and beat their chest they are doing something. What ever it takes to get votes for these jokers…no conflict or donation corruption in Canberra :).
Agree. I will be voting against this pathetic government and encouraging colleagues, clients, friends and family to do the same. I am in a marginal electorate too. I’ve had a gutful. It is good to see Frydenberg and Hume saying some positive things, but these words will not pay my ever increasing bills, boost my revenue or safisfy my outrageous compliance audits. Nor compensate me for the stress I have had to endure under this terrible Government. I used to fear a Labor Government. But there is nothing left they can do to me. I am like Aslan, shaved and strapped to the rock. So I will now punish them at the ballot box and these pathetic imbeciles can sit in opposition and think about the damage they caused to tens of thousands of hard working Australians.
Voting for the other party that pressured the Government to adopting 100% of the Royal Commission and or pressuring a sitting Government won’t do anything. They’re the same. You need to channel your anger at Industry Associations that failed to represent you.
As frustrating as it is to see a LNP government bury advisers in red tape, running to the Labor Party is not the solution! It’s a bit like the anti-Nazi’s ending up in Communist East Germany at the end of World War 2! I would rather keep knocking on the door of a LNP government than have the knock completely ignored by a Labor Government who are in bed with Industry Funds and don’t want to deal with advisers who are not employees of their super funds.
LNP make vague legislation and allow Corrupt ASIC extremely wide policy discretion via massive volumes of REGS to interpret policy how ASIC want it to play out. And how ASIC want to police it.
Thus ASIC have effectively been given totally free policy discretion.
ASIC ARE TOTALLY CORRUPTED VIA REGULATORY CAPTURE TO INDUSTRY SUPER & ALP / Unions.
ASIC ARE TOTALLY ANTI REAL ADVISERS.
LNP & Frydenberg have actively also been very Anti Real Advisers.
[b]Results = worst 8 years of BS REGS and Anti Adviser Red Tape, useless costs, laws and interpretation ever seen.
LNP and Frydenberg have to fix this real fast or GO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![/b]
There were worse alternatives.