The Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law welcomed the release of the report into financial services and products by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services.
"This report is a welcome contribution on the discussion over the future direction of the financial advice industry and investor protection in Australia," Mr Bowen said.
"Recent controversies, such as the Storm Financial collapse, have dented confidence in the financial advice industry.
"The Government will respond to the committee's report in conjunction with the Cooper Review, which will also be looking at commissions and fee structures in superannuation.
"Importantly, the Government has already moved to put in place a national regulatory and consumer protections surrounding margin lending."
As the Minister outlined at the recent FPA National Conference, any regulatory changes by the Government will be guided by the following two key principles:
- The financial advice that people get must be in their best interests – distortions to remuneration, which misalign the best interests of the client and the adviser, should be minimised; and
- In minimising these distortions, we need to ensure that we don't put financial advice out of reach of those who would benefit from it.
"We'll be working through the recommendations of the Ripoll report and will judge its recommendations against those two policy principles, to help ensure that financial advice is in the best interests of the client, while keeping this advice within the reach of those who may need it most," Mr Bowen said.
"The move away from commissions will improve transparency for consumers and will help to ensure that your clients receive advice which is free from any conflict of interest, whether real or perceived.
"It is worthwhile noting that this is a report with the support of both sides of politics.
"The Shadow Treasurer's announcement last week that the Coalition will oppose the removal of commissions sought to pre-empt this unanimous report."
23 November 2009