ASIC chairman Greg Medcraft has outlined the future agenda of the Commission, saying that he plans for ASIC to move beyond being a compliance organisation into an intitution that promotes education and other initiatives, such as teaching of financial literacy topics in schools.

 

In his keynote speech delivered to Finsia’s 2011 financial services conference, Mr Medcraft outlined three initiatives that ASIC will pursue to build public trust and awareness:

  • Reform to conflict management
  • Improving competency and quality of advice
  • Improvement of operational ethics and standards.

 

Other points:

  • Monitoring and supervision: new advisers would be required to be supervised wioth some who has at least five years’ experience.
  • Central register with the results of those who sit and pass the exam being publicly available
  • Maintaining continuous learning – envisaged to be done via e-learning modules every three years.



An ASIC consultation paper has been issued outlining most of these concepts, looking at a cost of $300 for the exam and $250 for knowledge update reviews, to be developed by a committee of industry professionals. “ASIC is focussed on outcomes, not micromanaging the profession,” said Medcraft. He suggested a model similar to that adopted by FINRA in the US would be appropriate.