Sydney, 5 July, 2007: The Australian Bankers’ Association (ABA) welcomes changes introduced today by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to improve access to regulatory documents.
The ABA is pleased that ASIC has improved accessibility of regulation by rationalising the myriad of documents it has issued on financial services regulation. Regulatory guides will replace a number of different documents issued by ASIC, including policy statements, practice notes, guides and FAQs.
ASIC stated1 that from today the types of regulatory documents will be reduced to four – regulatory guides, consultation papers, reports and information sheets.
ASIC has also announced a regulatory road map on its website to help financial service businesses, such as banks, find class order relief instruments and regulatory documents.
David Bell, Chief Executive of the ABA, said: “It is important for ASIC to clearly communicate with the financial services industry about how it believes that financial service providers can meet their obligations under the law.”
For example:
- The rationalisation of regulatory documents should assist in reducing confusion about the status of such documents. Simpler formats and the inclusion of summaries of the purpose and key points in the document should also provide a useful guide to the regulator’s key messages leading to better regulatory outcomes.
- The use of consultation papers should assist in consulting with industry early and before firm views about policy have been formed by the regulator. It is vital that ASIC engage with industry and leverage the expertise of industry to facilitate improved policy outcomes for the regulator, industry and consumers.
- The road map should assist industry find relevant regulatory documents and class order relief instruments. These documents are an important part of the financial service regulation regime. In the past, the ABA has highlighted the expansion of legislative and regulatory obligations as creating unnecessary compliance costs for industry.
Mr Bell said: “It is pleasing that the work started on regulatory improvement – the ‘Better Regulation’ initiatives - continues with these recent enhancements, which reflect some of the recommendations of the Regulation Taskforce . This is an area where regulatory red tape and unnecessary compliance costs can be minimised.”