The Financial Services Reform Bill, having sailed through the Senate with only minor (and non-insurance) amendments enforced by the ALP and Democrats, is back in the Lower House and is expected to finally finish the legislative process as early as today.

While it didn’t contain any real surprises for most sectors of the insurance industry, including brokers, accountants in particular claim their problems with the legislation were virtually ignored.

Count among the successful lobbyists the legal profession, which managed to gain big exemptions for lawyers, although those whose specialty is providing financial services and advice will still need to be licensed. The Law Council fought a long battle against the Bill, maintaining lawyers are already heavily regulated at state level.

Chief among those who opposed and lost was the accounting profession, which now maintains accountants are at a disadvantage to lawyers who provide basically the same service. Maintaining that the new licensing requirements won’t benefit any of the 130,000 accountants in Australia, the Institute of Chartered Accountants, the National Institute of Accountants and CPA Australia, have criticised the licence requirements and definitions for being ambiguous.

Institute of Chartered Accountants director Keith Reilly alleged the Law Council was consulted by Financial Services and Regulation Minister Joe Hockey, who didn’t take up his institute’s offer to consult. The accountants are particularly displeased with the term “financial advice”, which they say allows lawyers to give incidental financial advice while forcing accountants to get a licence to do the same thing.

Continued lobbying against the contentious application of the regulations is inevitable. So is activity against the commission disclosure provisions of the legislation. Neither is likely to be successful at this stage of the process, according to Canberra sources. Expect an implementation date of October 1.