Australian Securities and Investments Commission Chairman Greg Medcraft has called on financial advisers to raise their game.

“Investors deserve to have trust and confidence in financial advice,” he told the National Press Club in Canberra last week. “I have long been passionate about lifting trust and confidence in this sector.”

Mr Medcraft blames the industry itself for financial advice’s low penetration.

“Only one in five Australians get financial advice,” he said. “With recent high-profile cases of advisers mis-selling financial products, this is sadly no surprise.

“The industry needs to get its house in order.”

To change perceptions, Mr Medcraft has again called for a national adviser exam, which the commission has repeatedly pushed during recent inquiries into the sector.

He says it would “go a long way towards building trust and confidence”.

“I see the exam as a co-regulatory solution that would provide national assurance to all Australians,” Mr Medcraft said.

He says an exam would show advisers have been tested in a secure environment and have degree-level competence.

It would also show they have received ethics training as a core component.

“Another area where we need the right nudge is in penalties for white-collar crime,” Mr Medcraft told the audience.

“Breaking the law in the financial sector seems to be a trade-off between fear and greed.

“Australia needs penalties that amplify the fear and suppress the greed… penalties that will scare the pants off people.”