Submissions to the Parliamentary Joint Committee’s (PJC) inquiry into Australia’s financial products and services will provide enough information to complete an appropriate inquest, the PJC chair Bernie Ripoll has said.
“I’m pretty satisfied that what we’ve got is the information we were after, so I’m more than happy that that will provide us with the basis of information that we need to carry on our inquiry properly,” Ripoll told InvestorDaily.
The PJC had received around 400 submissions in total, covering a broad spectrum of responses from both the financial services sector and consumers, Ripoll said.
“Importantly we’ve received submissions from people that have personal stories to tell and I think that is an important part of this inquiry process. For a lot of those people it will give them closure.”
Ripoll said a call for change within the financial services industry was the common theme among the submissions.
“There’s an absolute view right across the sector about making it more of a respected profession, looking at issues of qualifications and licensing, and peoples’ ability to deal in certain financial products and services and ensuring that they are appropriately qualified,” he said.
A push for the distinction between product sales and advice was a predominant issue raised in the submissions, Ripoll said.
“That distinction is something that really sticks in my mind wherever I go, and it’s not casting a judgment on either – it’s just that providing someone with advice and providing someone with a product sale is a completely different thing,” he said.
Licensing arrangements and the way commissions worked were other prevalent issues raised in the submissions, Ripoll said.
“There are a number of organisations looking at what to do – some are saying ban commissions altogether. I’m not making any judgment at this stage but certainly that’s what the industry has been saying to me,” he said.
The PJC will hold public hearings over the coming months in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Townsville and Cairns, Ripoll said.
“We’ll then be deliberating over that information as well, writing our report and making our recommendations to be tabled in parliament on 23 November,” he said.
