Address by Jennifer O'Donnell, Executive Director, Compliance, ASIC to the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA), 10 November 2005.
Greg and I are delighted to have the opportunity to present together here at the ASFA conference. Clearly the timing for us is excellent, with the recent introduction of Superannuation Choice, and there is surely no better forum for us to update the superannuation industry about our current program of work focusing on Super Choice.
As Brad mentioned in the introductions, both Greg and I took up our positions in March this year, within a new ASIC structure, so it's probably worthwhile at the outset to explain a little bit about our current structure in ASIC, and therefore to pre-empt some of the different perspectives that Greg and I will bring before you today.
As you all know, the Financial Services Reform Act introduced a new licensing and disclosure regime for providers of financial services. Since the end of the FSR transition period last year, ASIC has taken the opportunity to move away from our previous industry-based structure – which suited our work during the transition phase of FSR – towards a more functional-based structure. We took the view that this would enable us to shift some of our emphasis towards encouraging compliance by those in the regime – as opposed to bringing people within the regime – and would help us to focus our own skills and resources in the most efficient and effective way possible.