ASIC is extending the date by which relevant providers – financial advisers who provide personal advice to retail clients on relevant financial products (including time share advisers) – must be registered. Relevant providers will now need to be registered by 1 February 2024. The reason for the further extension is that the Treasury Laws Amendment (2023 Measures No. 1) Bill (the Bill) remains before parliament.

A further extension to the registration requirement will allow additional time for:

• Parliament to consider the improvements proposed by the Bill;
• ASIC to assist the financial advice industry to understand and comply with the registration requirement by issuing regulatory guidance and conducting webinars; and
• Australian financial service (AFS) licensees to understand the registration requirement and to make necessary applications to register their relevant providers with ASIC.

Background

The requirement for financial advisers to be registered was introduced by the Financial Sector Reform (Hayne Royal Commission Response—Better Advice) Act 2021, in response to Recommendation 2.10 of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry.

On 1 November 2022, Government announced that it would delay the financial adviser registration requirement until 1 July 2023 to allow certain improvements to be made to the Stage 1 registration

requirement. These improvements were introduced by Government on 16 February 2023 in the Treasury Laws Amendment (2023 Measures No.1) Bill 2023.

On 30 May 2023, ASIC announced that it would delay the date by which Relevant Providers must be registered to 1 October 2023. On 20 September 2023, ASIC further delayed the date by which Relevant Providers must be registered to 1 February 2024.

ASIC is Australia’s corporate, markets and financial services regulator.