InvestorDaily Uncut: DDO, ESG and how the FSC and its members are tackling the challenges
On a new episode of the InvestorDaily Uncut podcast, host Maja Garaca Djurdjevic is joined by Blake Briggs, CEO at FSC, and Andy Moy, vice president at Objective. Mr Briggs and Mr Moy joined the podcast to talk about the Design and Distribution Obligations (DDO), standardisation of compliance across the industry, ASIC’s recent activities regarding stop orders, and more. While Mr Briggs outlined the Financial Services Council’s (FSC) development of version two of its target market determination template, Mr Moy spoke about what it means to be a member of the FSC. “Since we now represent about 30 financial services companies ourselves, we participate on the FSC working group, particularly on the DDO response and we found it very useful to help influence the industry’s response to the regulator, but also to understand what we need to do with the technology to meet those requirements,” Mr Moy said. “That ultimately leads to templates that we then implement in our technology to be able to respond more easily to those regulatory requirements.” The pair also talked about ESG gaining momentum in the financial services industry. “ESG is certainly one of the other hot issues at the moment,” Mr Briggs said. “The allocation of capital in both the Australian and global economies is a really important part of moving towards sustainable investment and delivering long-term value for clients. This means recognising the risks climate change poses to an existing portfolio as well as where there are mitigation, emerging technologies or other investment opportunities that can deliver those investment returns that people want to see as this transition occurs,” he added, while outlining the FSC’s role in helping companies on this journey. Mr Moy also talked about how Objective is aiding companies as this rapidly evolving space moves from aspiration to policy and obligation.