The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ob体育) has granted relief to secondary service providers from the Financial Service Guide (FSG) obligations, so that secondary service providers can give their clients access to FSG information in a practical manner.
A secondary service provider is a licensee (or authorised representative) who provides financial services to retail clients via another person (referred to as the 鈥榠ntermediary鈥�).
鈥楽econdary service providers don鈥檛 have a direct relationship with the retail clients who receive their services, so they may have difficulty complying with the retail client requirements of the Corporations Act 2001 (the Act), in particular the requirement in Part 7.7 of the Act to give clients an FSG鈥�, said ob体育鈥檚 Director of Regulatory Policy, Mr Mark Adams.
鈥榦b体育鈥檚 relief will help secondary service providers inform retail clients what services they provide in a practical and cost-effective manner鈥�, he said.
ob体育 has granted class order relief in four areas, namely:
1. General FSG relief: Where an arrangement exists for an intermediary to give a retail client the secondary service provider鈥檚 FSG, and other conditions are met, the secondary service provider has been granted relief from the consequences of failing to actually provide an FSG. This relief applies from 1 July 2005. See [CO 04/1571] for full details of the relief.
2. Transitional FSG relief: Until 30 June 2005, secondary service providers can meet their obligations to provide an FSG to retail clients by posting it on their website (if they have one), making it available on request and meeting some other conditions. This relief gives secondary service providers a reasonable opportunity to put in place the arrangements under our general FSG relief, which commences on 1 July 2005. See Class Order [CO 04/1571] for full details of the relief.
3. FSG relief for experts: Where an expert鈥檚 report is to be included in a third party鈥檚 disclosure document (such as a prospectus or product disclosure statement), the expert鈥檚 FSG may be included as a separate and clearly identifiable part of the expert鈥檚 report if other conditions are met. See Class Order [CO 04/1572] for full details of the relief.
4. FSG relief for arrangers: Where a person arranging for the issue of a financial product by a product provider under an intermediary authorisation (paragraph 911A(2)(b) of the Act) and other conditions are met, the arranger鈥檚 FSG can be included as a separate and clearly identifiable part of the product provider鈥檚 PDS. See Class Order [CO 04/1573] for full details of the relief.
Further guidance on secondary services provision and complying with the Act is available from www.asic.gov.au/fsrrelief and will be available in ob体育鈥檚 suite of FAQs in early 2005. It will include how to identify whether a service is a secondary service.
Copies of Class Order [CO 04/1571], [CO 04/1572] and [CO 04/1573] can be obtained from the ob体育 website at www.asic.gov.au/co
End of release
Download a copy of:
- Our guidance on secondary services provision and complying with the Act
- Class Order [CO 04/1571]
- Class Order [CO 04/1572]
- Class Order [CO 04/1573]
听