Speaking at the Australian Hedge Fund Forum in Sydney this week, FSC director of policy and international markets, Martin Codina, said the issues associated with the current drafting of the IMR have reached an “intractable stage”.
The model Treasury has adopted for the IMR does not appear to be workable, and will not result in a framework that can compete with similar regimes in the UK and other jurisdictions, he said.
“It’s something that I’m confident will be a pretty high priority for the new government,” Mr Codina said.
Another issue likely to be high up on the agenda for the Coalition will be the distinction between wholesale and retail clients – something that was originally intended to be part of the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) package of reforms.
“[But FOFA] got bigger than anticipated and more complex than anticipated, and as a result this was not necessarily seen as a key priority item,” he said.
An options paper on the subject, released by Treasury in January 2011, attracted 45 submissions, including a submission by the FSC.
If the line between wholesale and retail clients is redrawn, it must be made clear whether it would apply to new or existing clients, said Mr Codina.
Portfolio holdings disclosure is also likely to be a priority for the incoming government, he added.
“It is something that we don’t believe is going to go away. There may be a small question mark about whether we can go back to more of a self-regulatory approach in that space, but I think in some ways the world has moved on,” he said.
From the middle of next year, registrable superannuation entities will be required to publish their portfolio holdings every six months within a 90-day ‘lag’.
“We expect that the two key parameters around the lag and the frequency are probably not going to move,” Mr Codina said.
