C'mon Minister; Pass the Bill

Calls are increasing for Parliament to finally pass the Financial Services Legislation Amendment Bill so advisers can get on with the changes.

Monday, November 12th 2018, 7:34AM

"The government doesn't seem to be in any hurray to pass it," Murray Weatherston told delegates at the SiFA conference yesterday.

He says it's probably a formality as all the parties supported it at the second reading and none of the MPs, who spoke to the bill, raised any concerns.

Meanwhile on Friday Booster chief executive Allan Yeo also called for urgency to pass the bill.

"it is imperative that FSLAB gets enacted ASAP and the industry moves on to get itself ready for the brave new world."

"FSLAB is not a perfect piece of legislation, but no legislation ever is. Uncertainty and inaction is worse than an imperfect piece of legislation."

"In the absence of certainty good advisers are unable to invest in the future of their business with any confidence, whilst advisers who have no place in the future of the industry continue to hang on and potentially continue to damage the reputation of the industry as a whole."

Currently FSLAB is waiting for its third reading in Parliament. This is the committee phase where MPs debate the content and clauses of the bill. It is currently sitting at around number 20 on Parliament's Order Paper.

Meanwhile FMA manager, supervision, Michael Hewes said the regulator was unsure how many firms will apply for Financial Advice Provider licences. He said it could be between 3-4000 applications.

When the initial licensing period opens all applications will have to be made online as the regulator does have sufficient staff to manage the process any other way.

FMA will rely on things like exception reports, random testing and sampling to access applications.

The process to get a full licence will be "much more rigorous", he says.

Tags: Booster Financial Services Legislation Amendment Bill SiFA