The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has been urged to extend the implementation dates for its proposed changes to Internal Dispute Resolution (IDR) arrangements, with the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) arguing existing timeframes are too tight.
In a submission filed with ASIC, ASFA argued that the implementation timeframes for several of the proposed new requirements “appear to be unrealistically tight” in circumstances where the final version of the new arrangements (Regulatory Guide [RG] 165) is not expected to be made public before December, this year, at the earliest.
“The effort required to implement the new IDR standards will be considerable. Given the number of aspects which require clarification, most of this work will have to occur after the final version of RG 165 has been published,” the submission said.
“Accordingly, it would be inappropriate for any aspect of the update to RG 165 to commence immediately upon its publication. ASFA considers that the ‘non-transitional’ requirements should not commence before 1 July, 2020.”
ASFA said it was also recommending that the transitional commencement dates for several of the key requirement should also be extended to provide financial firms with adequate time to achieve compliance.
Like other major financial services organisations, the ASFA has also expressed concern about the proposal to recognise complaints made via social media.
It said that it believed substantial clarification was required that “ASIC’s concern should be directed to ensuring that financial firms have in place appropriate and directly accessible processes through which dissatisfied customers can make a complaint.”
