Financial Services and Superannuation Minister Bill Shorten was mulling whether to delay the start of the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) reforms, a spokeswoman for his office said yesterday.
“The Minister is considering whether any additional transitional relief is required and will provide more information shortly,” she said, declining to elaborate.
Late last year, ASIC said financial advisers would have until 1 July 2013 before strict regulatory action kicked in, a full year later than the deadline set out in the government’s draft legislation.
Until then, it would adopt a measured approach to financial advisers who were making reasonable efforts to comply with FOFA but had inadvertently breached the reforms due to a misunderstanding of requirements.
“However, where ASIC finds deliberate and systemic breaches we will take stronger regulatory action,” the regulator said then.
Financial advisers and their industry bodies have said they no longer have enough time to meet the government’s 1 July 2012 start date for the reforms, given the many delays and lack of clarity around the final legislation.
Meanwhile, Treasury signalled on the FOFA website that it would aim to give industry time to make the profound transition.
“If necessary, there may be transitional arrangements from 1 July 2012 to allow industry sufficient time to implement the reforms (such as allowing industry time to make IT changes),” Treasury said.
“The measures require a reasonable transitional period to allow industry to adopt the significant changes.”
The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, chaired by federal member for Oxley Bernie Ripoll, is set to table its FOFA report in Parliament on Wednesday.
