An address by Professor Berna Collier, ASIC Commissioner, to the The Australian Investors' Association and The Courier-Mail Seminar, Brisbane, 19 November 2005
Thank you for inviting me along to speak with you today.
Before launching into my presentation for tonight I thought I might say a few quick words about ASIC. I hope that you will feel free to get in contact with us if there are issues you want to discuss or you see things happening in the marketplace which cause you concern and which you believe ASIC ought to be aware of.
- ASIC, as I'm sure you know is the companies regulator and the consumer protection regulator for financial services.
- We provide consumer protection regulation in relation to superannuation, life and general insurance, banking products and shares and managed investments.
- We don't have responsibility for regulating property advice (although this is an issue governments are currently looking at) nor, on the whole, do we regulate credit beyond our general consumer protection powers.
- Finally, we use a variety of tools to do our job, including enforcing the law, giving guidance on compliance, promoting law reform and educating consumers so they can make informed decisions that are in their best interests.
Today's talk falls squarely under that education role.