Putting the pressure on

With all the criticism and grief financial advisers have been copping, I'm sure there were more than a few grateful to see some of the spray directed elsewhere of late.

- By Jamie Williamson

This past fortnight has seen some developments on the regulatory front, including the interim report from ASIC on the state of the local private credit market.

It highlighted the need for greater standards in the sector, outlining the prevalence of opaque and possibly conflicted fee arrangements, lack of transparency around underlying loans and so on. Around the same time, ASIC claimed a pretty significant scalp, placing interim stop orders on several La Trobe Financial products, including its $11-plus billion 12 Month Term Account.

While the orders placed on two of the three funds were lifted within about a week, it sent a strong message to the market that ASIC means business. Or at least, that was the intention, because the report itself wasn’t exactly groundbreaking.