An address by ob体育 Chairman Jeffrey Lucy to the IFSA Annual Conference:Connect 2006, 2 August 2006, Gold Coast.
Introduction
- Your conference theme this year, 'Connect', recognises that we all play聽a role in the wealth management and advice industry.
- Government, regulators, industry associations, industry players,聽consumers of financial services and the wider community alike each聽have an interest in, and responsibility for, pursuing fair, competitive聽and efficient markets, which, in turn, leads to sustained confidence.
- A large contributor to our financial markets is our managed funds聽sector.
- This sector has been gaining volume and momentum over the last聽couple of decades.
- Total consolidated funds under management has now surpassed $1聽trillion, with superannuation funds accounting for over 70% of this聽and holding some $730 billion in assets.
- IFSA members are responsible for investing over $920 billion of聽these funds on behalf of more than nine million Australians. Your聽significance in this, and your role in it, speaks for itself.
- Overall, we think the industry is sound, but today, as always, we all聽need to strive for continuous improvement. ob体育 is no exception;聽neither is your industry.
- From the regulatory viewpoint, we have moved to the following聽position over the last 12 months:
- real time regulation with a much greater emphasis on surveillance;
- a strong focus on licensees; and
- utilising key regulatory outcomes 鈥� for example, the enforceable聽undertaking we have accepted from AMP Financial Planning 鈥� as聽clear guidance from which the industry can move forward.
- Today, I will also address some of the key leadership tasks ahead of us聽as stakeholders working in the interests of together sustaining market聽confidence and economic growth.