The announcement was made on Friday by Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer Bernie Ripoll in a speech to the Stockbrokers’ Association of Australia’s annual conference.
The government has already put exemptions in place that will allow stockbroking firms to remunerate their brokers through brokerage fee arrangements. Stamping fees will also be permitted under the exemption.
In addition, Treasury released draft regulation on 7 May 2013 that proposed to extend the brokerage fee exemption so that brokerage fees are exempt from the ban on asset-based fees in respect of borrowed amounts.
“We are also pursuing exemptions to ensure that the fee arrangements between market participants and online white-label broking service providers will not be subject to the ban on conflicted remuneration, where these services do not provide investors with personal advice,” said Mr Ripoll.
The stockbroking industry was “never the intended target” of the FOFA reforms, he added, which “have their origins in the collapse of firms such as Opes Prime and Storm Financial”.
But stockbrokers are still obliged to adhere to the other key parts of the regulatory reforms.
“I would like to take this opportunity to remind the stockbroking industry that it will continue to be subject to the requirements under the FOFA reforms to act in the best interests of its clients,” said Mr Ripoll.
The two-year review by ASIC will allow the government to be confident that the exemptions provided to the stockbroking industry are “working as we intend”, said Mr Ripoll.
