ASIC reveals 2023 decisions on lead generator activity
Despite lead generators being a factor in encouraging investments in the Shield and First Guardian funds, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has admitted it did not seek assistance from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
Rather, ASIC has told a Parliamentary Committee that it met in October, 2023, with the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
ASIC’s activity around lead generation has revealed in the regulator’s answers to questions on notice from Victorian Liberal Senator, Jane Hume, resulting from hearings of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services.
Hume, a former Coalition Government Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services, noted that she had been aware of the misuse of lead generation and cold calling and asked whether ASIC had recommended to Treasury that cold calling be banned.
She also asked whether ASIC had sought assistance from the ACCC to use consumer law tools.
ASIC took Hume’s ACCC assistance question on notice and its formal written response revealed that it “did not seek assistance from the ACCC to use consumer law tools inr elation to this conduct”.
“The consumer protection provisions for which the ACCC has responsibility do not generally apply to financial services,” the ASIC response said.
“In October 2023, ASIC met with the ACMA as part of its review of lead generation superannuation switching models. Following this meeting, ASIC made a formal request to ACMA for the provision of information relating to telemarketing complaints that involved superannuation,” ASIC said.
However, it said that ASIC had, on 30 July this year met with the ACCC in relation to the ACCC’s review into unsolicited selling and lead generation, including door-to-door selling and cold calling.
It said this was in response to a designated complaint from the Consumer Action Law Centre.
In verbal responses to Hume during the Committee hearing, ASIC officials said a part of the challenge in dealing with lead generators was that all models do not look the same.
Spare us the waffle ASIC.
What if anything did you do ASIC to stop the problems ?
When & how many Adviser complaints received and what did ASIC do to stop the problems ?
Nice deflection, Jane.
ACCC and QLD Fair Trading have no clue about this issue. When I put my complaint in to them they referred me back to AFCA saying it’s related to super. I told them it wasn’t super, it was marketing!! They still didn’t understand.
ASIC are responsible for the cold calling debacle plain and simple. Stop trying to dodge your responsibility and again make innocent advisers pay with CSLR, which is a scheme of “LAST RESORT”, not a piggy bank to bail out your failures.
The Government and ASIC were told directly by advisers that this cold calling of unaware members of the public had SCAM written all over it. Jane her colleagues and ASIC failed to act on the advice of thousands. You are jointly liable to the members of the public who were ripped off, not hardworking honest advisers. Pay the bill l!!!