news item

Helping licensees remediate customers: ASIC releases practical field guide

Published

7 April 2021

  • ASIC invites licensees to consider how they can enhance their remediation design and execution practices using its new practical field guide, Making it Right.
  • It was created in response to industry demand and answers the frequently asked questions ASIC receives.
  • This customer-centred field guide draws on ASIC’s on-the-ground experience with remediations and lessons from behavioural science. It does not set new legal obligations.

ASIC has released a practical remediation field guide called Making it Right: how to run a consumer-centred remediation.

“This draws on our experience with remediations and behavioural science to help licensees with the ‘day-to-day’ design and execution of consumer-centred remediations," said ASIC Acting Chair Karen Chester. “Licensees have been asking us for just those sort of practical tips.”

Due to the pandemic it is more important than ever to get money back in the pockets of consumers. The field guide will, in part, help licensees consider their customers’ lives and needs – which will lead to better outcomes for customers and licensees.

The field guide does not set new legal obligations. Licensees are invited to consider how it may apply to their current and future remediations, where appropriate. It is designed to be scalable to remediations of different sizes and complexity.

ASIC has separately released a consultation paper (CP 335) on proposed updates to Regulatory Guide 256: Client review and remediation conducted by advice licensees. When complete, updated guidance will set out what ASIC understands the law requires of all financial services licensees, credit licensees and superannuation trustees. Submissions to CP 335 are due by 26 February 2021. ASIC will then release draft guidance, informed by the feedback received during this consultation period, for a second phase of consultation.

Learn more

Download the obligation-free remediation guide: Making it Right: how to run a consumer-centred remediation.

Read more about ASIC’s consultation paper on proposed updates to RG 256.

ASIC is Australia’s corporate, markets and financial services regulator.

Media enquiries: Contact ASIC Media Unit