Budget silence means brake comes off ASIC levy
Strong lobbying is being initiated to ensure that financial advisers are not the group hit by the increase in the ASIC levy to fund new greenwashing measures announced in the Federal Budget.
However, with this week’s Budget largely silent on the ASIC levy, advisers can expect an increase later this year.
The Government used the Budget to announce that it would be providing an additional $14.2 million over four years including $4.3 million to ASIC to address greenwashing issues with the ASIC activity to be recovery via levies under ASIC’s funding model.
Licensee heads made clear to Financial Newswire that they believed that any funding of ASIC with respect to greenwashing should be attributable to product manufactures, not financial advisers.
AdviceIQ general manager, Paul Harding-Davis said he believed financial advisers should not be burdened by the Greenwashing measures which were clearly aimed at product manufacturers and over whom advisers had no control.
There was significant concern about the scale of the next round of levies in circumstances where the pandemic-related freeze implemented by former Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg has expired and, despite calls from adviser groups, there has been no move for an extension.
The levy freeze saw the amount held at the 2018-19 level of $1,142 per adviser and it was expected that the Government would announce any extension of the freeze in this week’s Budget – something which has not occurred.
Apart from the additional allocation to ASIC with respect to greenwashing, the Budget papers were silent with ASIC staffing levels actually suffering a minor reduction from 1,846 in the current financial year to 1,810 in 2023-24.
The lobbying to ensure that product providers carry the cost of the greenwashing elements of the levy also comes against the background of funding for the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort to be largely ultimately funded via the ASIC levy, with the majority to be carried by financial advisers.
According to the explanatory materials around the draft CSLR, the annual levy will be subject to a cap of $250 million.
Ah I see! This is exactly how you make advice more affordable to Australians. Nice one.
FAAA are you listening? Our practice funds our advisers AFA/FPA memberships. You should have been putting all efforts in getting the ASIC levy removed, or allocated to the appropriate parties (i.e. product providers). If you are unsuccessful in keeping the ASIC levy at its current level, which looks very likely, then we fund the levy increase from the monies we would use to fund your memberships. As AFA/FPA/FAAA members we are sick and tired of your failures and conflicts of interests when you are supposed to be representing the interests of advisers. Something you have failed to do for far too long.
Greenwashing is 100% product related and yet product providers are not paying for this?? But ASIC are using the funds advisers pay to monitor a product issue? How can this work?
Seems FAAA too busy worry about their own trade marking issues to pursue this