ANZ throws support behind Labor’s FOFA changes; Job ads continue to rise: Midday Roundup

The ANZ Bank has rejected the Coalition’s changes to the Future of Financial Advice regime, with a newly published submission to the Senate inquiry backing the previous Labor government’s stricter legislation, according to Fairfax.

The Coalition’s reforms, which were watered down by a senate coup in November last year, were much weaker than Labor’s original reforms that included a move to make customers ‘opt in’ to receiving ongoing advice and stronger laws around the disclosure of fees.

ANZ said in the submission it believes Labor’s legislation would improve the quality of advice and protect consumers from poor advice.

“ANZ is a strong supporter of the Future of Financial Advice and related MySuper reforms and is working to not only comply but take a leadership position to rebuild consumer confidence in advice,” the bank said.

Job ads continue to rise

Job advertisements have risen for the seventh consecutive month, up 11.4% over the year to December.

The latest ANZ Job Advertisement figures show job ads rose 1.8% in December, driven by both online and newspaper job ads.

“ANZ Job ads have now been increasing for seven consecutive months, an encouraging sign that labour demand is firming,“ said ANZ Chief Economist Warren Hogan in a statement.

“The good news is that the economy continues to produce new employment opportunities. The bad news is that this has not been quite enough to counteract the flow of new workers into the economy plus the on-going loss of jobs in certain sectors.”

Shares down on open

Aussie shares have traded lower this morning, following losses on Wall Street at the end of last week.

According to Tristan K’Nell, head of trading at Quay Equities, local investors continue to be swayed by reoccurring themes.

“Most major sectors were in the red, with commodity stocks again taking a beating,” K’Nell said.

“In the resource sector, BHP (-1.71%), Rio Tinto (-1.52%) and Fortescue (-2.52%) added to the weakness, as spot iron ore again fell below $70 a tonne to add to commodity market concerns, while Santos (-2.6%), Oil Search (-1.77%) and Origin (-1.74%) all continued their recent downward trends.”

“The only positive sector on the day were the gold miners who benefited from gold’s rise on Friday as investors rotate into more defensive plays.”

The S&P/ASX 200 benchmark was down 24.8 points to 5440.8 points at 12.23pm AEDT. On Friday, the Dow Jones closed 170.5 points lower, down 0.95% to 17737.4 points.