Answering a question on notice from the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, ASIC spelled out its approach stating that before it actually exercised its compulsory information gathering powers it was examining publicly available information, including written answers provided by superannuation funds.
“We have been examining publicly available information, including the written answers provided by superannuation funds to the House of Representatives Economics Committee concerning switching activity by trustees and senior executives following unlisted asset revaluations, and the funds’ conflict management policies,” ASIC said.
“The information provided by funds to the Committee is helping inform ASIC’s further investigations.”
Liberal Party MP Jason Falinski and ASIC Commissioner Danielle Press
The corporate regulator has been forced to explain the different independence disclosure obligations between asset consultants and financial advisers in a series of questions taken on notice by Commissioner Danielle Press at the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services in November.
Liberal Party MP Jason Falinski hounded Press on the marketing of asset consultant Frontier Advisors, who provide investment advice to institutional clients like superannuation funds and insurers, as well as private wealth advisers.
“ASIC have rightfully made a lot of the term ‘independent’,” Falinski said.
After pointing out that advisers working for vertically integrated institutions like AMP, CBA and Westpac “can’t call themselves independent”, Falinski turned his attention to Frontier, who he said were “putting themselves out there as financial advisers and are calling themselves Austral
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From complimentary membership of the Qantas chairman’s club to a cashmere Mongolian wrap, Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s (ASIC’s) gifts and benefit register reflects a regulator whose personnel get handed lots of complimentary conference and seminar passes but not much else.
ASIC had provided its fits and benefit register as a result of a question on notice from the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services but if financial advisers and others believed the register would reveal large amounts of compromising corporate largesse then they were badly disappointed.
But what did attract at least some interest was the number of times ASIC personnel attended Australian Restructuring Insolvency & Turnaround Association (ARITA) events and whether Commissioner John Price’s complimentary membership of the Qantas chairman’s lounge was really only worth $500.