Joe Longo

A new report from ASIC reveals the agency has culled more than 9,240 pages of regulation since the beginning of the year as it calls for further ideas for regulatory simplification.

The report, Regulatory Simplification, marks the first milestone in ASIC’s simplification work and seeks input on a range of initiatives aimed at making regulation clearer, more accessible and easier to navigate—while maintaining strong consumer protections.

ASIC Chair Joe Longo said the regulator had listened to feedback about its guidance, its website, and its legal instruments, and it was acting.

‘Regulatory complexity raises costs, stifles innovation and makes compliance harder.

‘Since we formed the ASIC Simplification Consultative Group late last year with key leaders across business, industry and consumer groups, we have been focused on simplifying how we regulate.

‘Simpler, clearer regulation is more enforceable but it also means more seamless interactions with ASIC, more understandable rules to protect consumers, and clearer compliance requirements.’

The report outlines ASIC’s initiatives in the following key areas:

• Improving access to regulatory information, including a redesigned ASIC website that cuts more than 9,000 pages of content, and regulatory roadmap pilots for small-company directors and providers of financial advice, designed to help these groups understand and navigate their regulatory obligations.
• Reducing complexity in regulatory instruments, with pilots to consolidate and simplify 23 legislative instruments by at least 65 pages, in addition to the 181 pages of guides that have already been cut.
• Making it easier to interact with ASIC, including transitioning more ‘paper-only’ documents to email lodgement and enabling electronic signatures on all forms by 1 October this year. These are practical next steps towards fully streamlined digital lodgement services in the future.

The paper also highlights areas of law reform which we heard from stakeholders would simplify regulation. ASIC is actively contributing to these law reform discussions and working closely with Treasury to explore broader opportunities for reform.

‘This is a multi-year program of work and we want to hear more about what we should consider for our next steps and initiatives,’ Mr Longo said.

‘We want to hear from those who engage with ASIC—what works, what doesn’t, and what would make the biggest difference.’

ASIC is seeking feedback on these initiatives and simplification more broadly by 15 October 2025. Submissions can be made anonymously or via email to simplificationconsultativegroup@asic.gov.au.

Download

Report 813 Regulatory simplification

Background

The ASIC Chair announced the agency’s focus on regulatory simplification in November 2024 in a speech at the ASIC Annual Forum: ASIC Annual Forum 2024: Bridging generations – regulating for all Australians.

The ASIC Simplification Consultative Group has included:

• Joe Longo (Co-Chair), ASIC Chair
• Nicola Wakefield-Evans (Co-Chair), Board Member of Guardians of Future Fund, Non-Executive Director Viva Energy Group, Clean Energy Finance Corporation, Chair of MetLife Australia, Member of Takeovers Panel, GO Foundation Board, UNSW Foundation
• Anna Bligh, CEO, Australian Banking Association
• Professor Ross Buckley, ARC Laureate Fellow & Scientia Professor, UNSW & Member RBA Payments System Board
• Stephanie Tonkin, CEO, Consumer Action Law Centre
• Bran Black, CEO, Business Council of Australia
• Andrew McKellar, CEO, Australia Chamber of Commerce and Industry
• Naomi Edwards, Chair, Australian Institute of Company Directors
• Pauline Vamos, Chair, Governance Institute of Australia
• Xavier O’Halloran, CEO and Founding Director, Super Consumers Australia
• Luke Achterstraat, CEO, Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia

Further details on the work of the group can be found at Regulatory simplification.

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Pauline Vamos

Zurich Financial Services Australia (Zurich) today announced the appointment of Pauline Vamos as Independent Director and Chair of Zurich Assure, effective 1 July 2024.

Ms Vamos has extensive experience across financial services, insurance and the regulatory landscape, including as a former Director of Financial Services Regulation at the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC), Chief Executive Officer at the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) and Head of Legal and Compliance at Tower Life.

In addition to joining the Zurich Assure board, Ms Vamos currently also serves as a Non-Executive board member of Mercer Superannuation (Australia) Limited, Chair and President of the Governance Institute of Australia, Chair of K2fly, a Non-Executive Director at Chief Executive Women, and Chair of Interaction Disability Services Limited.

Ms Vamos said, “I am delighted and honoured to join the Zurich Assure board and look forward to working alongside fellow board members and the broader team to evolve its operations and strong customer offering.”

Sandhya Maini, Head of Zurich Assure said: “Ms Vamos brings extensive experience and capability across leadership, strategy and social responsibility which will play an integral role as Zurich Assure continues its digital advancement and focus on making financial advice more accessible and affordable for Australians.”

Zurich Assure is Zurich’s life insurance advice business which has provided independent advice services to Zurich’s existing life insurance customers since 2022.

Ms Vamos joins existing board members Kieran Forde and Matthew Drennan.

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Pauline Vamos

Regnan has called for greater transparency by large corporates about their longer term people strategy in the face of a very disruptive environment. To support this outcome, Regnan has launched a paper to provide guidance to corporates on improving disclosure of issues of material significance related to strategic management of people (human capital).

The preservation of a company’s share value and growth has never depended as fundamentally on effective management of their people as it does today.

Rapid technological change – including advances in automation and artificial intelligence – are reshaping the modern business environment, requiring new organisational and strategic responses.

Regnan considers the ways in which knowledge, skills and abilities are organised to achieve corporate objectives – or, strategic human capital management – to be an increasing determinant of longer term share value, given that it is strategic management of human capital that supports a business in responding to the evolving external risks, threats and opportunities it faces. As such, strategic human capital management is a key underpinning of strategy execution.

Regnan’s CEO Pauline Vamos says, “We hear companies claim that ‘people are our most important asset’ so often that it has almost become clichéd. Yet the reality is that for the majority of companies today, a significant portion of company value is deeply connected to its people. That is, the value created through the knowledge, skills and capabilities that reside in employees, as well as their shared knowledge as a group.”

“However, the true value story of a company’s people is rarely told well in corporate disclosures. Without a fulsome picture communicated to the market, it is likely that company valuations will be misinformed. And this affects the entire investment chain.”

Strategic human capital management represents a significant information gap which can shed light on these risks and opportunities, as well as a company’s future prospects. To date, disclosure in this area has not kept pace with the changing business landscape.

Vamos continues, “Our aim with this paper is to highlight the gap in knowledge of long term investors and provide companies with practical guidance to better communicate with their current and future investors those issues of strategic importance that relate to human capital management.”

Regnan’s paper, Strategic Human Capital: Closing a material gap in corporate disclosure, is available for download

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The Board of Regnan is delighted to welcome Pauline to Regnan as its new CEO. Pauline’s distinguished career in financial services and her lifelong advocacy of best practice corporate governance makes her an outstanding choice to lead Regnan through its next phase of development and at this important time for the investment management industry.

Pauline brings to Regnan over 25 years’ experience in the financial services industry. She has broad leadership experience across a number of organisations, most recently as the CEO of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (AFSA). Pauline is a qualified lawyer and a previous member of the peak advisory and consultative groups on pension and superannuation reform to Government during the last 9 years. Pauline was on the Advisory Council for the Centre for International Finance and Regulation (CIFR), an academic centre of excellence for research and education in the financial sector. Pauline is also a Director of the Banking and Finance Oath (BFO) group, Decimal Software Limited and most recently, Mercer Superannuation (Australia) Limited.

Ms Vamos said, “I am excited to join Regnan and to have the opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to wealth stewardship, through the promotion of thoughtful, long-term and holistic risk management and corporate governance best practices. I look forward to leading Regnan as we continue to advance the responsible investment agenda and be a sensible voice in representing the long term investor. ” Pauline will commence in the role on 10 July 2017.

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Jan Swinhoe, Chair of MSAL said, “we are thrilled to welcome Pauline to the Board. Her appointment delivers a strong message that we are committed to building our expertise in the superannuation space.”

Ben Walsh, Managing Director & CEO of Mercer Australia, is delighted about the additional diversity of experience, attributes, and skills Ms Vamos will bring to the Board.
“Pauline is a leading figure and influencer within the financial services industry and is known for driving policy, governance and regulation excellence – all attributes which mirror the Board’s values and vision. Her appointment firmly establishes our determination in ensuring we have the right firepower behind us to achieve our growth objectives and deliver value-added services to clients.”

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The compulsory superannuation guarantee system was introduced in 1992 and since then it has become the second-largest asset for the majority of Australian workers. As of the end of the December 2014 quarter, superannuation assets totaled AUD 1.64 trillion. In late 2014, Australia was voted as having the world’s second-best retirement income system behind Denmark. In addition, the sector has become a major source of funding to the rest of the economy, including infrastructure projects, banks and non-financial corporates.

Q: Despite all this positive information, are there any downsides in your view?

A: The downside is that our superannuation is still a fairly immature system. It is over 20 years old, but the majority of people are not retiring on enough money. Women in particular require more – on average, they are retiring on around AUD 100,000, while the average for men is AUD 200,000. Because it is a maturing system and a defined contribution system, the real impact of it in changing the lives of retirees is still some way off as it requires time to accumulate over people’s working life. But certainly, for the majority of Australians, it will make their retirement today and in the future much better.

Q: ASFA’s research points out that since the introduction of compulsory superannuation the environment has changed dramatically. Can you outline those changes for us?

A: As it has grown and changed, one of the major impacts on the superannuation system and industry is that governments have and probably will continue in the future to tinker with the system. While any superannuation and retirement income system must be adjusted as demographics evolve and the system matures, not all changes to the system have been made in the name of good public policy. In previous years, we have seen the money in the system being used to deliver on short-term government needs. In our view, raiding the superannuation pool is not the way to fix a government budget. Although we understand the system needs to be adjusted over time and tax concessions need to be modified, we are concerned by constant tinkering with it, which can affect the community’s confidence in the system.

Q: The Financial System Inquiry and Mercer have been critical of the lack of policy stability over the past decade, which they believe adds to costs and reduces long-term confidence and trust in the system[1]. In addition, ASFA’s own research suggests the current regulatory framework “severely limits the scope for innovation and new products”[2]. How do you think the system is being affected?

A: When the superannuation system was designed it was all about accumulation, and the system has done a good job in allowing people to accumulate money for retirement. But there is a big gap and, as the Financial System Inquiry found, the system should be about providing income streams for retirement. This is a compulsory system that is funded by all taxpayers; it is about providing dignity in terms of income in retirement.

Under the current rules, there are seven major regulatory impediments around the development of income stream products. As we all know, as people retire they have very different wealth situations so they need a great deal of choice and a great deal of advice when it comes to how they create an income stream that is best for them. ASFA issued a document recently called ‘The future of Australia’s super: a new framework for a better system’, which details a set of principles that should guide superannuation policy decisions and outlines a policy framework to help the system deliver on its objectives. It comprises a series of recommendations, including that as a minimum we need six tiers of income streams as we manage everything from longevity risks to those income streams that will fit snuggly with the social security and the pension system.

The retirement income system should be about income streams, with greater flexibility to create a variety of income streams, including those that offer some protection against longevity risk but are also flexible enough to allow controlled access to commutations and limited lump-sum death benefits.

Q: One point that your research makes is that there is a prevailing culture of lump sum retirement payments vs. the income streams that you mentioned. How do you shift that mindset?

A: Certainly the Australian system does create that lump sum mindset. But what our most recent research shows is that the majority of retirees today are now taking a drawdown income stream. Five times as many people are taking an income stream as taking a lump sum. What is happening is those that are retiring on smaller lump sums (under AUD 100,000) are more likely to take it as a lump sum to pay down debt or go on a holiday. However, the vast majority of people are looking for an income stream to supplement their pension. So what we are not delivering for those people is a variety of income stream options that they can choose from.

Q: Former Federal Treasurer, Peter Costello has been critical of the sector for its lack of engagement in post-accumulation or retirement management. What’s your response to that?

A: I interviewed Peter recently and I’m always surprised that a lot of politicians, former politicians and certainly experts across the industry make statements without fully understanding the latest data. The questions of how to invest post-accumulation or in retirement is quite a new conversation and what our latest research is showing, as we all know, is that people are living longer in retirement. So the general propensity to move to cash and bonds just before retirement is not necessarily in retirees’ best interests if they are looking at a long retirement period. Funds and providers are now looking to deliver diversified portfolios that will provide steady income streams over the longer term and that are also cost-effective and sustainable throughout people’s retirement.

Q: Recent debate has centered on longevity and the fact that current modeling may be under-estimating the length of retirement periods by up to a decade. What measures can be taken to prepare for this?

A: There are a couple of measures. The first is that people will have to put more away. That’s why we’ve been strongly advocating that we move to the 12% superannuation guarantee as soon as possible. The deferral in the increase significantly decreases the effectiveness of the system in getting people off the full age pension.

The second is to open up the post-retirement market so that longevity risks can be a firm part of income stream products. At the moment, the way that products are defined in terms of what is regarded as an income stream for pension purposes and tax rulings reflect two extremes – a life pension or annuity, or an account-based pension or annuity. Managing longevity risks is really outside the remit of those products. What we need to start creating are hybrid products where you have a regular income stream, you can manage your longevity risks, and you can access some of the capital. But also for many people, income streams should be reversionary so they can reconvert that income stream into a lump sum if they have to move into aged care.

To develop a flexible product like that on a cost-effective basis today is extremely difficult. This is why we’ve been advocating for changes around legislation and tax rulings and even in the role of regulators in the development and approval of post-retirement products.

Q: According to Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) statistics, the number of superannuation funds has decreased, is primarily due to mergers. However, the most significant growth in the sector has been in self-managed funds. What challenges do you think this trend brings?

A: It’s very important to look at the overall picture when thinking about self-managed funds and pooled vehicles. Over 90% of Australians are in pooled vehicles, with less than 3% in self-managed funds. Over 31% of the money across the system is in self-managed funds, most of which is in drawdown. So the challenge for superannuation and the industry has been what does it mean for the overall pool? We have a large pool of superannuation money – while it’s not Australia’s sovereign wealth fund, it is a ballast for the economy. It’s very important for that pool to invest for the long-term growth of the economy and the long-term benefits of Australians. We need to ensure that the superannuation system and the pool do their jobs, both for individuals’ retirement and the Australian economy.

Q: What is your view on superannuation fees?

A: There has been criticism about the industry in terms of the amount of fees. Now there are some reasons that fees are significant. If you do an international comparison, the Australian system is very good value. But what people fail to understand is that one of the huge benefits of the system, but also one of the big costs, is insurance. The superannuation system provides over 80% of insurance for death, total & permanent disability (TPD) and income replacement across the Australian community. That alone saves the Australian government AUD 400 million in social security benefits. Another reason for these fees in that a lot of the industry legislation has been drafted quickly, with short implementation times, which has increased costs. We believe that we need to see resolution in these areas in order for costs to be pared back.

Q: What does the future look like for the sector?

A: The superannuation sector has a very strong future because the need to provide income in retirement is understood by the general community. There is no doubt that there will be continued pressure on the sector to reduce its costs to take advantage of that scale. Some of the areas in which the sector is opaque, particularly in terms of fees, will need to be resolved. The need to look at the public good in terms of how funds are invested, including in some areas like fossil fuels, will be a very active discussion over the next few years. But the biggest opportunities for individuals and the community are in the real provision of a wide variety of income stream choices. That will also allow greater investment in income-producing assets like infrastructure and more investment in areas of innovation, which will drive economic growth in Australia and economic growth is what is needed in order to sustain the lifestyle people have today.

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[1] Financial System Inquiry, Interim Report (2014): http://fsi.gov.au/publications/interim-report/04-superannuation/stability-of-superannuation-policy-settings/

[2] ASFA, ‘Changes to regulatory settings for financial products dealing with longevity’, October 2013

Disclaimer: This material is issued by Nikko AM Limited ABN 99 003 376 252, AFSL 237563 (Nikko AM Australia). The information contained in this material is of a general nature only and does not constitute personal advice, nor does it constitute an offer of any financial product. It is for the use of researchers, licensed financial advisers and their authorised representatives, and does not take into account the objectives, financial situation or needs of any individual. The information in this material has been prepared from what is considered to be reliable information, but the accuracy and integrity of the information is not guaranteed. Figures, charts, opinions and other data, including statistics, in this material are current as at the date of publication, unless stated otherwise. The graphs, figures, etc., contained in this material include either past or backdated data, and make no promise of future investment returns, etc. Past performance is not an indicator of future performance. Any references to particular securities or sectors are for illustrative purposes only and are as at the date of publication of this material. This is not a recommendation in relation to any named securities or sectors and no warranty or guarantee is provided.

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