The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) will start approving industry associations and individual firms’ codes of conduct this year.

Commissioner Peter Kell told a Senate Economics Legislation Committee last week the regulator is already discussing the approval process with the industry.

“Our intention is to issue a consultation paper about some of the key elements that we see that should be in place for those codes of conduct that will enable ASIC to approve them,” he said.

“We are planning to issue that within the next few months, about the middle of the year.”

The regulator will also issue guidance on governance and monitoring of compliance for codes as well as issues obviating the need of opt-in for advisers.

Committee member Mathias Cormann, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, asked Mr Kell if a code will include a provision for advisers to renew their advice contracts with clients regularly.

Mr Kell said ASIC does not have a fixed view at this stage on how opt-in would be implemented.

“At this stage we wanted to send a signal to the industry that they were going to have to give some careful thought to that,” he said. “We are also obviously obtaining advice ourselves on how that will work in codes in practice.”

Senator Cormann asked if this means contracts will have to be re-signed every two years, but Mr Kell said ASIC has not agreed on any proposals yet.

“As a consumer, I want to enter into an ongoing contractual relationship with a financial adviser whom I trust, and I want to be contacted on an as-needs basis,” Senator Cormann said.

“Would ASIC prevent that sort of arrangement from being in place on an ongoing basis, or is that something that would fit within the sort of code that you approve?

“If I sign off at the beginning of a relationship that I am happy to have an ongoing relationship, would that still force that adviser to contact me on a regular basis to re-sign a contract every two years to achieve the same outcome?”

Mr Kell said ASIC is debating these issues internally and that various members of the financial services industry have put forward proposals that are being considered.

“We are required under our Act to take into account the desirability of consistency between codes on some of these issues, so we will also be looking to that when we consider provisions such as the opt-in issue,” he said.