THE Australian Securities and Investments Commission has started stage one of a new project to foster better disclosure of fees and charges in the product disclosure statements for investment products.
This new project follows the release, on November 28 last year, of ASIC Policy Statement 168: Disclosure: Product disclosure statements (and other disclosure obligations), which foreshadowed further work to promote product comparability through the use of the new product disclosure statements.
ASIC’s executive director, Policy and Markets Regulation, Malcolm Rodgers said he was keen to see the new product disclosure statement regime lead to better consumer understanding of investment products.
“This first project will look at the disclosure of fees and charges because research shows that consumers want to be able to compare fees for investment-linked products,” Mr Rodgers said.
The first stage in the project will be the preparation of an options paper on how ASIC, industry and consumer groups, can work to produce effective disclosure of fees and charges for investment-linked managed investments, superannuation and life insurance products.