The FPA has foreshadowed it will conduct research into independent professional standards boards on the back of the Parliamentary Joint Committees’ (PJC) proposal to set up a new board.
“We need to have a debate over what this council might do, is it necessary and so forth,” FPA chief executive Jo-Anne Bloch said.
In November last year, PJC chair Bernie Ripoll announced the proposal for a new professional standards board as part of 11 recommendations from the inquiry into financial products and services in Australia.
It would fall to ASIC to begin consultation with the financial services industry to establish the board, Ripoll said.
Bloch said it is worth noting ASIC’s United Kingdom counterpart, the Financial Services Authority, has released a report suggesting a move away from a professional standards council and instead placing criteria on the table for professional bodies to meet.
“The UK is different from Australia and we can’t just adopt it, but I think there is some really good thinking in that report about why they have moved away from a professional standards board, why they are recommending what they are recommending and obviously we’ve been talking to various people about those issues and others,” she said.
“We’re keen to make sure we have clear delineation between this new body and other bodies, whether we actually need it in the first place.”
The FPA’s planned research, which is in the early stages, would look into what appropriate objective PJC’s proposed board may take, whether it be about trust, confidence or professionalism, Bloch said.
“It would be looking at other models around the world and it would be looking how that might play out in Australia and how best could we improve trust and professionalism and what that would take,” she said.
“It would be a report that we make publicly available. It’s in the very early stages.”
ASIC were unavailable for comment.
