ASIC has announced they will be a part of a joint industry project to develop innovative, digital financial product disclosures that aim to boost consumers’ understanding of financial products.
The regulator will work with product providers AMP and Vanguard to develop and user-test a short, online 'key facts' sheet and a self-assessment tool to help guide and engage investors.
ASIC Chairman Greg Medcraft said they will use the findings from the project to inform our broader work on digital disclosure, which could see the regulator cut red tape and encourage more effective electronic disclosure for brokers.
Medcraft said technology was integral to improving the effectiveness of disclosure in the financial services industry.
“We want investors to have trust and confidence in our financial system and part of that is for ASIC to explore new ways for investors to get to grips with their investments,” he said.
“We encourage industry to harness the opportunities of digitisation. More and more, people are accessing financial products and making decisions using mobile devices.
“More work needs to be done on short disclosure. Investors tend to turn off when faced with wordy disclosure documents. If they need more detail, investors can access further layers of information from product providers online.”
Product providers could also present information in interactive or video form and offer online tools for investors to assess their understanding of a product.
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