Australia’s big banks still need to improve supervision of their financial advisers, according to the country's financial regulator.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has released the findings of its review of how Australia's largest financial advice firms have dealt with past poor advice and non-compliant advisers, including how these firms have dealt with affected customers.
The extensive review, which forms part of ASIC’s broader Wealth Management Project, was focussed on the conduct of the financial advice arms of AMP, ANZ, CBA, NAB and Westpac. It arose out of serious concerns about past adviser misconduct, and had the broad objective of lifting standards in major financial advice providers.
Financial Malfeasance
«It is critical that customers are able to get financial advice they can trust. ASIC expects internal processes to support core values of putting the customer first and where there are failings, for advice firms to act quickly to provide a response in the interests of their customers,» said Peter Kell ASIC Deputy Chair.
ASIC prosecuted several cases of financial malfeasance during 2016 with many attributed to employees of some of the countries major financial institutions.
Banks Respond
Commenting on the ASIC findings ANZ Group Executive Wealth Australia Alexis George said «We know we need to work harder to maintain the trust of our customers and we will continue to take a hard-line approach with the minority of advisors who do the wrong thing.»
National Australia Bank Chief Customer Officer, Consumer Banking and Wealth, Andrew Hagger, said «Our focus on improving standards and performance is on-going and we might continue to find issues – because that’s what you do when you constantly look to raise the bar for customers. When we do find issues, we will say sorry to customers and make things right.»
