Australian financial services industry calls for greater effort to restore trust

Australia’s Investment Magazine has published an article on the financial services industry and its ongoing struggle in that country to repair consumer trust and better deliver on community expectations.

According to the release the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) chairman, James Shipton, has once again called for the financial services industry to address conflicts of interest within its businesses to repair damaged consumer trust and better meet the expectations of the community.

Speaking at the recent Australian Council of Superannuation Investors Annual Conference in Sydney, Shipton said there was a tremendous ’trust deficit‘ within the community right now and ASIC is focused on diagnosing the issues, which he called both ’jarring‘ and ’confronting’.

He added that the industry must support and reinforce the council’s efforts to address ongoing challenges of misconduct and called upon everyone at the conference to do their part.

The Australian Ethics Centre executive director, Dr Simon Longstaff, added that there was an expectation that companies would do what’s right only if forced to by a regulator. He said there needed to be an organic connection between the self-motivations of businesses and their purpose.

‘If you think that your purpose is just to be profitable, then it doesn’t give you any way to discriminate between the choices you have, whether it’s strategy or execution or investment of capital. Purpose is an extraordinary motivating force in a world in which businesses are less defined by what they do than by what they mean.’