Sarah Abood

“ASIC has released its Cost Recovery Implementation Statement (CRIS), which estimates the costs that ASIC intends to recover against various industry sub-sectors for the 2023/24 financial year. At first glance it seems that the ASIC levy per adviser will not move very much for this financial year, compared to the final levy for the 2022/23 financial year (which was $2,818 per adviser). 

“It’s important to bear in mind that this is just an estimate, and the final amount could change. We think this amount remains much too high for a shrinking small business financial advice sector, the vast majority of whom are doing the right thing, yet are paying for supervision and enforcement against those who are not – including those who are unlicensed. We continue to advocate strongly for the ASIC levy to be reduced, along with more transparency on how these costs are arrived at. 

“Again, we call on the Government to implement the findings of the 2023 Treasury review into ASIC’s Industry Funding Model (IFM). That report was delivered over a year ago now, and seems to be gathering dust. 

“More recommendations to help make the levy fairer and more sustainable are also contained in last week’s Senate Economic References Committee report into the capacity and capability of ASIC, to which the FAAA contributed. As this report notes, ASIC is a highly profitable operation for the government, making a surplus of $1.4bn in the 2022/23 financial year. This is in large part because fines and penalties associated with enforcement actions are paid into consolidated revenue. Government has plenty of room to make the levy fairer and more sustainable.” 

Sarah Abood, FAAA CEO

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