The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) may not approve all codes of practice in time for the start of the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) reforms.

ASIC Commissioner Peter Kell says the regulator has held talks with several industry associations, but code approval, monitoring and compliance will be “quite resource-intensive”.

“I would say there are going to be some challenges in terms of having a set of codes all approved and lined up by July next year,” he told the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services.

But he says the regulator has some extra time. “Because the opt-in provision around renewal after two years in effect kicks in… two years after July 1 2013, there is… some additional time to get a code into place to obviate the need to comply with that provision.”

Compliance with FOFA is currently voluntary. It will be mandatory from July 1 next year.

Mr Kell says ASIC has discussed with the industry bodies the types of conduct to cover, provisions that would remove the need for opt-in and how codes should be enforced. It is unclear how many groups will want to put forward a code.

He says in the early period of the reforms ASIC expects to take a “very facilitative approach, especially for those organisations that have large, relatively complex IT and system builds”.

“It is our aim to assist them to comply, to get across the line, so they can get in shape for the new laws, rather than taking a very strict and inflexible approach from day one.”

He says ASIC is also working with the industry to explain what must be covered in integrated statements to clients about advisers’ commissions.

The regulator expects to issue a consultation paper on conflicted remuneration in the next month.

The committee asked about feedback to ASIC’s consultation paper on scaled advice and the best interest duty. Mr Kell says the response has been generally positive and there have been several requests for additional examples.

“I think it is genuinely the case that, overall, the industry has not come back to us and said, ‘We have been completely surprised at how you’re intending to approach this’,” he said.

Mr Kell says companies want to know how to demonstrate they have taken clients’ best interests into account when providing more limited advice, and what the regulator expects to see as proof advisers have met their obligations.