ASIC has announced that as a result of the Government’s plan to establish a single disciplinary body for financial advisers in 2021 (see here), it will make a legislative instrument to provide relief to Australian financial services (AFS) licensees from financial adviser compliance scheme obligations.

To provide certainty for AFS licensees that they will not be in breach of the law because their financial advisers will not be able to register with an ASIC-approved compliance scheme by 1 January 2020, as originally required, ASIC will grant a three-year exemption to all AFS licensees from the obligation in the Corporations Act 2001 to ensure that their financial advisers are covered by a compliance scheme, and from the associated notification obligations.

AFS licensees will still be required to take reasonable steps to ensure that their financial advisers comply with the FASEA Code of Ethics from 1 January 2020, and advisers will still be obliged to comply with the code from that date onwards.