Submission to the AER’s Consultation on the Minimum Disconnection Amount
Related Projects
Joint consumer submission – mortgage broker best interests duty and remuneration reforms
Submission to: Treasury
The broking industry needs wholesale reform if it is to act in the best interests of people taking out home loans. We support the imposition of a best interests duty, which should be expanded to all financial products, and the requirement to prioritise needs. There need to be stronger penalties for misconduct, the establishment of record keeping obligations and the loophole about the way a broker is defined needs to be closed. The root cause of so many problems in the mortgage broking industry is remuneration and wholesale reform is needed in this area: removing volume-based and campaign-based commissions, banning non-volume based bonuses, a prohibition on recommending excessive mortgages, ensuring that clawback arrangements encourage switching, defining conflicted remuneration, ensuring that IT software and support systems deliver fair results and ensuring that education and training events are genuine. These reforms would be pro-competitive so that brokers would be forced to scan the market and help people find a loan that best suits their needs. Although the prohibition of upfront and trail commissions are not within the scope of this proposed legislation, the consumer movement reiterates its support for these recommendations from the Financial Services Royal Commission.
The broking industry needs wholesale reform if it is to act in the best interests of people taking out home loans. We support the imposition of a best interests duty, which should be expanded to all financial products, and the requirement to prioritise needs. There need to be stronger penalties for misconduct, the establishment of record keeping obligations and the loophole about the way a broker is defined needs to be closed. The root cause of so many problems in the mortgage broking industry is remuneration and wholesale reform is needed in this area: removing volume-based and campaign-based commissions, banning non-volume based bonuses, a prohibition on recommending excessive mortgages, ensuring that clawback arrangements encourage switching, defining conflicted remuneration, ensuring that IT software and support systems deliver fair results and ensuring that education and training events are genuine. These reforms would be pro-competitive so that brokers would be forced to scan the market and help people find a loan that best suits their needs. Although the prohibition of upfront and trail commissions are not within the scope of this proposed legislation, the consumer movement reiterates its support for these recommendations from the Financial Services Royal Commission.
Bankruptcy Amendment (Enterprise Incentives) Bill 2017 – Reduction of Bankruptcy Period from 3 Years to 12 Months – Joint Submission
Submission to: Attorney-General’s Department
A response to the Bankruptcy Amendment (Enterprise Incentives) Bill 2017, supporting the reduction of the bankruptcy period from 3 years to 12 months and some ongoing obligations for bankrupts and proposing other amendments.
A response to the Bankruptcy Amendment (Enterprise Incentives) Bill 2017, supporting the reduction of the bankruptcy period from 3 years to 12 months and some ongoing obligations for bankrupts and proposing other amendments.