Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, I present the following reports of the committee together with evidence received by the committee: Statutory oversight of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, February 2011; and Report on the 2009-10 annual reports of bodies established under the ASIC Act, February 2011.

Ordered that the reports be made parliamentary papers.

I am pleased to speak to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services reports Statutory oversight of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, February 2011; and Report on the 2009-10 annual reports of bodies established under the ASIC Act.

At the outset I would like to thank the members of the committee for their continued hard work and efforts in overseeing ASIC, the regulatory body, and also in the number of inquiries that we have from time to time. I also thank the secretariat for their hard work and everything they do to make possible the work of the committee members themselves. I wanted to place that on the record.

Section 243 the ASIC Act directs the committee to inquire into and report on ASIC’s activities and matters relating to those activities to which parliament’s attention should be directed. On 1 August 2010, responsibility for supervision of real-time trading on Australia’s domestic licence market was transferred to ASIC from the Australian Stock Exchange. ASIC has also been given responsibility for licensing and monitoring consumer credit providers, received additional consumer protection powers and, from April this year, will be responsible for the national business names register as well.

The transfer of these responsibilities has occurred relatively smoothly. While it will take another six to 12 months for the benefits to be fully assessed, ASIC can report improvements in monitoring broker conduct. The time from problem identification to formal investigation has also decreased. The committee will continue to monitor these functions and review their impact on ASIC’s overall performance and resources. The committee has previously reported to the House that it was closely monitoring the progress of ASIC’s investigation into the collapse of Storm Financial as well as a number of other investigations.

On 22 December 2010, ASIC announced that it would commence proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia against Storm Financial and other financial service providers, including the Bank of Queensland, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Macquarie Bank. The committee is pleased that decisions are being taken. It remains concerned for investors who face the loss of their savings and in some cases their homes because of investments about which they may not have received adequate information and advice.

The report on annual reports has been prepared in accordance with section 243 of the ASIC Act. The report examines the annual reports of the following bodies established under that act: the Auditing and Assurance Standards Board, the Australian Accounting Standards Board, the Companies Auditors and Liquidators Disciplinary Board, the Corporations and Markets Advisory Committee, the Financial Reporting Panel, the Financial Reporting Council and the Takeovers Panel.

The committee was generally satisfied with these reports. It has made some comments on matters concerning the Companies Auditors and Liquidators Disciplinary Board and, in particular, the Financial Reporting Panel, to which I might direct my final remarks. The committee notes the referral of four matters to the Financial Reporting Panel in August 2010. This represents a big change. Prior to August 2010, the panel had not made a determination on a single referral of a dispute between ASIC and companies. The committee also notes that, having been referred in August 2010, the matters were resolved by October that same year. The committee has asked ASIC about the low number of past referrals and will be discussing this issue at its next oversight hearing. The committee holds its next hearing with ASIC on 11 March and will continue to pursue a number of the issues discussed in these reports and raised in the House today.

I again thank the secretariat and the committee members for their continued hard work and diligence in these areas.

Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party, Deputy Chairman , Coalition Policy Development Committee) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to speak to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services report on the statutory oversight of ASIC and the report on the 2009-10 annual reports of bodies established under the ASIC Act. As the chair, the member for Oxley, has noted, this committee reports to parliament from time to time on ASIC’s activities, and the committee’s report considers a number of these, including the expansion of ASIC’s responsibilities, its response to the Storm Financial issue, issues arising from the global financial crisis, ASIC’s complaints-handling system and ASIC’s financial literacy programs.

I highlight a couple of these themes. The committee explored with ASIC issues arising from the global financial crisis. These issues included the feasibility of a unique client identification system for the Australian market, the freezing of investor funds in late 2008 and regulatory reform. ASIC advised the committee that the United States has estimated the cost of implementing a unique client identification system in that country at US$4 billion upfront, with annual ongoing costs in excess of US$2.1 billion. As a result of these estimates, ASIC wishes to conduct further analysis and discussion in order to determine the feasibility of such a system. The committee notes ASIC’s advice that the Australian markets are operating well.

ASIC advised that, of the 93 frozen funds, 20 are now unfrozen while 32 remain frozen but offer periodic withdrawals. Applications can be made to access money from any of the funds if an investor faces financial hardship. ASIC advised that $155 million has been paid in hardship relief, with over 4,700 of the nearly 6½ thousand hardship applications approved.

The committee has previously informed the House that it maintains an ongoing interest in ASIC’s capacity to receive and resolve complaints. ASIC has advised that it receives between 13,000 and 15,000 complaints a year. Since commencing its role in monitoring consumer credit providers, ASIC has received 999 credit complaints from both consumers and industry. The committee notes with approval ASIC’s commitment to continuously improve its complaints handling process and to use information gained through the process to improve other areas of responsibility and service delivery.

The committee also sought ASIC’s advice about the effectiveness of ASIC’s financial literacy programs. ASIC advised that the programs are regularly reviewed in order to determine their effectiveness.  The committee is particularly interested in what populations need attention when targeting financial literacy programs, and the committee will continue to raise this issue with ASIC.

The chair has already touched on the report on annual reports in respect of the Financial Reporting Panel, so I mention in particular the Companies Auditors and Liquidators Disciplinary Board. The committee has expressed concern about the low numbers of applications made to the board. It is aware that some stakeholders in the sector have a view that disciplinary processes are not working as effectively as they should. The committee also notes concerns about the confidentiality of the board’s hearings reported in the inquiry of the Senate Economics Legislation Committee into liquidators and administrators. The committee does intend to revisit these matters once the government has formally responded to the report of the Senate Economics Legislation Committee.

I join the chair in thanking the secretariat for their assistance and hard work and the ASIC officials for their ongoing cooperation with the committee on behalf of this parliament.