The financial services industry must present a united front to governments and consumers, Financial Services Council (FSC) CEO John Brogden says.  

“The… industry is big, critical to the economy and prepared to grow,” he told the council’s annual conference in Brisbane last week.

“But we do not speak with one voice as an industry when we talk to consumers and government. We have been divided and that makes us weaker.”

Mr Brogden says the retail, agriculture and mining sectors each show unity and governments treat them seriously.

“The division [in financial services] has affected us, but legislation such as the Future of Financial Advice reforms has reduced the divisions between retail and group markets.

“The more we work together, the more advice we will be able to give consumers.”

He says the FSC and the Industry Super Network (ISN) have now linked up to represent the super sector.

The groups have “abandoned our old approach to each other. Today, ISN is at the conference to symbolise that new relationship.”

ISN CEO David Whiteley told the conference the two associations had been co-operating for the past 18 months on a number of issues.

“I hope we can work together on future challenges facing the super industry,” he said. “But we will not always agree on the way ahead on certain issues, and neither should we.”

The link-up has raised questions about the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia’s role representing the industry.

Association CEO Pauline Vamos has called for all super industry bodies to meet for policy talks.

“We feel the stage is set for the next level of collaboration among all interested parties, from the larger funds they represent through to smaller funds, self-managed super funds, financial planners, actuaries, investment consultants and many more,” she said.

The association “will be writing to all stakeholders to convene this forum, which will act as a clearing house for policy discussion. It’s important the industry shows policymakers and the community that it can work together to ensure our super system is sustainable now and into the future.”