Bill to give Government wide powers over advisers
A feature of the Securities Legislation Bill is that it gives the government of the day power to make regulations determining what advisers should disclose to clients, Bell Gully partner Paul Foley told a Conferenz Securities Law conference yesterday.
He says under the bill new regulations will not have to face Parliamentary debate.
Officials have already begun working out what form those regulations should take.
The bill currently includes requirements to disclose all possible conflicts of interests, any associations or remuneration which might appear to be a conflict of interest, all commission, including “soft” commissions, whether a client is being “churned” and the impact of that churn, professional qualifications, and any rulings by a professional body against that adviser.
It is the form these disclosures will take which requires the focus from the industry at the moment, says Foley. “There’s a need for input from stakeholders – now,” he says. “Some of the responses from the industry have been a bit thinner than I would have liked to see. We need to see a lot more engagement with these issues.”
Foley says this is a “tall order” for the industry, which he says is still working through the changes proposed by last year’s Task Force on Financial Intermediaries.
There will be teething problems, no matter what is decided.
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