ASIC plans to implement national certification requirements for financial advisers on 1 July 2013.
The requirements, known as consultation paper 153 (CP153), would include passing a financial services competency certification examination and ASIC had asked parties interested in conducting the process to tender for it.
“We’re assessing the tenders now,” ASIC chair Greg Medcraft told InvestorDaily.
Asked about a timeline for the exam, Medcraft said: “We’re going to push it out to 1 July 2013.”
With the national certification examination, the corporate regulator wants to remedy concerns over whether advisers are keeping pace with competence levels required under RG146, the recognised minimum standard.
Medcraft said ASIC planned to appoint an education committee from within the financial advice industry so the industry could drive its own certification process.
“We don’t want to be micro-managing the industry’s training. We’re focused on outcomes,” he said.
The national test is the centrepiece of ASIC’s three-step CP153 process.
Once an adviser passed the test, they would be monitored by a supervisor with at least five years of experience. To keep skills up, a financial adviser would conduct an online update within two years of passing the certification test, and repeat the update every three years after that.
The Association of Financial Advisers has objected to national testing of advisers, saying it would duplicate assessments and costs.
The FPA has said it backs the move but wants its own members to be exempt. FPA members are certified financial planners (CFP). They must first have university degrees to undertake the CFP qualification.
