A speech by Greg Medcraft, Chairman, Australian Securities and Investments Commission, OECD–ASIC Asia–Pacific Seminar (Melbourne, Australia), 28 September 2017
Introduction
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you to everyone for joining us today – and, in particular, to our international guests who have travelled from across the globe.
I would also like to extend a special thanks to Masamachi Kono and the rest of the team from OECD for co-hosting this event with ASIC.
It has been about 10 years since the events that started the global financial crisis GFC – the freezing of some BNP Paribas funds on 9 August 2007.This has been described by some as 'the day the world changed'. And so it is fitting to ask today what has changed since that day?
Much has already been written and said about what has changed for financial institutions, the global economy and financial regulation. But I want to take a moment to focus on what has changed in relation to consumers of financial products and services. I see these changes as falling into two categories
- technological change
- changes to the way we think about consumer decision making.
I want to talk about both of these today, and also to touch briefly on the implications for consumer protection. We will look at many of these issues in greater detail over the course of today.