Reflecting on Assistant Treasurer Arthur Sinodinos’ comments that the federal government’s moratorium on financial services regulation would not prohibit a requirement to more explicitly disclose parent companies of licensees, Financial Planning Association (FPA) chief executive Mark Rantall said a balancing act is required.
“We absolutely support open disclosure, and for consumers understanding what they are getting and having control over the transaction,” Mr Rantall told a press briefing in Sydney yesterday.
“However, if there was [an additional] requirement to disclose underlying ownership we would want to see the consumer benefit in that,” he said.
While the FPA would, in theory, welcome transparent provision of information about ownership, Mr Rantall said he was concerned that consumers are already “confused by the weight of information” they are presented with due to regulatory requirements, such as fee disclosure statements.
“We need to ask what value that adds to the advice they get because they already get too much information, so I’m more in the camp of removing red tape than adding it, but disclosure is important,” he said.
Addressing the same briefing, FPA general manager, policy and conduct, Dante De Gori said that if the government or corporate regulator were to look at revamping disclosure requirements on ownership structures in the financial planning market, then they should first look at reviewing the “current system” rather than introducing a new regime.
This approach should also be applied to any further guidance on fee disclosure requirements, Mr De Gori suggested.
