Industry welcomes unit pricing changes

The financial services industry is welcoming proposed changes to unit pricing rules.

These are spelt out in a guide published jointly by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.

It is called Unit Pricing – Guide to good practice for the life insurance, superannuation and funds management industries.

The Investment and Financial Services Association praised these authorities for their decisions.

“In particular IFSA welcomes the amendment to permit scheme operators to elect not to make payments to exited members for unit pricing errors where the compensation due is less than $20,” IFSA’s deputy CEO, John O’Shaugnessy said.

Mr O’Shaugnessy described this change as “commercially workable.”

He said his association – and its Unit Pricing Focus Group – had been working closely with these authorities on these changes.

“IFSA now looks forward to further  the regulators with further enhancements to the Guide,” Mr O’Shaugnessy  said.

The revised guide can be found at http://www.apra.gov.au and following the prompts from the front page.

APRA’s Deputy Chairman, Ross Jones, said there are “significant costs” involved in drawing small cheques.

He said drawing the line at $20 was reasonable.