ASIC has agreed to take the lead on eight projects arising out of the 25 refinement proposals in the Federal Government's Refinements to Financial Services Regulation policy proposal.
ASIC's eight refinement projects are to:
issue further guidance on Statements of Advice (SOAs), including releasing a model SOA (discussion before refinement proposal 2.2 in the Government's proposal paper)
issue guidance and/or relief about compliance with the general advice warning requirements where there is an ongoing relationship between the adviser and the retail client (refinement proposal 5.1)
issue guidance and/or relief to deal with inconsistencies in the general advice warning requirements applying to product issuers in their advertisements (refinement proposal 5.2)
issue guidance and/or relief to clarify that advisers do not necessarily provide personal advice merely because they have some personal information about a retail client (refinement proposal 10.2)
issue further guidance and/or relief to promote the provision of basic online calculators (refinement proposal 10.3)
issue guidance and/or relief on the authorisation requirements for product arranging agents of Australian general insurance issuers (refinement proposal 12.2)
undertake a discrete review of ASIC Policy Statement 146 Licensing: Training of financial product advisers on adviser minimum qualifications as it applies to advice about basic deposit products and related non-cash payment facilities (refinement proposal 13), and
issue guidance and/or relief to deal with the unintended application of the non-cash payment facility definition to certain kinds of facilities (refinement proposal 14).
Each project has a separate timetable. We plan to have the great majority of our work, including all our public consultation, completed by September 2005. The last of our projects will be completed by November 2005.
31 August 2005 ASIC consults on proposal to reduce repetition of the general advice warning
Information release 05-49
Your comments are invited by 26 September on our proposed relief that would reduce the need for Australian financial services licensees, and their representatives, to repeat the general advice warning to retail clients who have heard it before.
ASIC example Statement of Advice: less is more
Media release 05-258
We have published an example Statement of Advice (SOA) illustrating our interpretation of clear, concise and effective advice and disclosure in a specific financial advice scenario.
5 August 2005 ASIC provides guidance about giving general financial product advice Information release 05-45
Do I need to follow the exact wording in the Corporations Act when I give a general advice warning?
Can I give a client general advice about a financial product if I have information about their personal circumstances?
1 July 2005 Licensees must still report significant breaches to ASIC Media release 05-189
AFS licensees must notify ASIC of any significant breaches of their obligations under the financial services laws, even where these are the subject of the Government’s FSR refinements proposals.
