ABA chief executive Anna Bligh appeared as a witness before the banking royal commission yesterday to answer questions about the lobby group's Code of Practice.
The ABA Code of Practice underwent a review throughout 2017 by consultant Phil Khoury, which resulted in a draft being sent to ASIC for approval in December 2017.
Counsel assisting Michael Hodge asked Ms Bligh why the December 2017 draft was sent to ASIC for approval for the first time in the code's history.
"The industry was giving consideration for submitting the code for ASIC approval over a number of months during and after Mr Khoury’s report," Ms Bligh said.
"The considerations were that providing the code or submitting it to a body outside the industry, in this case a regulator, may well add public reassurance that this code was a code that would be of benefit to customers, that it had been assessed and that it had been developed in accordance with the appropriate regulatory guidelines," she said.
Mr Hodge noted that a "revised revised version" of the ABA code is now available on lobby group's website, dated 23 April.
Ms Bligh said there have been continued communications between ASIC and the ABA since the submission of Mr Khoury's rewritten draft code in December 2017.
She conceded that ASIC and the ABA have not agreed on several aspects of the code, including the definition of a 'small business'.
