The regulator released its paper on code approval this week, outlining the contents, administration, governance, monitoring and enforcement of codes that would be relevant to advisers and industry representatives who were considering submitting a new or existing code for approval.
The Financial Planning Association (FPA) and the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) had both announced their intention to have codes approved by ASIC.
"If we accept CP 191 as it currently is, we're going to end up with a monopoly of two main associations where we're going to have to pick sides; CP 191 is going to make me pick but I think they both have their merits," MyAdviser managing director Philippa Sheehan told InvestorDaily.
"It's going to be no different to dealing with a Woolworth and Coles and as advisers move from one licensee to another, checking the new code they'll be operating under will be an [added] step."
She said as an Australian Financial Services License holder with 140 advisers, there would be strong preference for one association over another, which would require the company to create two or three sets of systems in order to meet the different codes of the associations its advisers were members of.
In addition, ASIC's approach to CP 191 had made codes difficult to administer, Ms Sheehan said.
"As a licensee, I am responsible and liable no matter what my representatives do therefore, should it not be me that comes up with the code for my representatives?
"I support the fact that we need a code of conduct of some kind that caters to the broad spectrum of [duties] but I certainly believe that should be at a licensee level, not at an association level."
Ms Sheehan said ASIC should be working on CP 191 with a view for licensees to have their own codes and the industry associations should develop guides for creating or improving codes for licensees.
"The FPA, the AFA and the Self-Managed Superannuation Fund Professionals' Association of Australia should help us in the creation of the licensee code and also in the policing of it.
"But at the end of the day, the licensee should be the one responsible for enforcing it and have the systems to control its enforcement like compliance checks et cetera," she said.
