By M Scott Donald and Ruth Stringer Amongst the measures introduced by the government in its Your Future Your Super policy initiative is a test of the historical performance of each MySuper product in the market.  Trustees whose MySuper product fail the performance test conducted annually by APRA will be required to send to all … Read more

Two recent cases have shed new light on the scope of the obligation on AFS licensees to do all things necessary to act efficiently, honestly and fairly in the provision of financial services (EHF obligation). The cases also give some illustration of how the EHF obligation can apply to product issuers. Both cases illustrate, in … Read more

On Friday 6 August 2021, Treasury registered the long-awaited anti-hawking regulations in relation to financial services, which can be found here. The Financial Sector Reform (Hayne Royal Commission Response) (Hawking of Financial Products) Regulations 2021 (Cth) operate to exempt certain conduct from the proposed anti-hawking prohibition coming into effect on 5 October 2021. Some key … Read more

This edition of our ‘FSR GPS’ (Guidelines, Principles and Strategies) series provides some insights on the requirement to report significant dealings to ASIC under the upcoming DDO regime, which is due to come into effect on 5 October 2021. Under the DDO regime, a product issuer has an obligation to report a ‘significant dealing’ to … Read more

We have previously written about our 12 principles that apply to the implementation of the new anti-hawking regime (NAHR), as well as some observations on the evolving structure of insurance contracts and distribution resulting from the NAHR. In this article, we make some further observations on the scope of an invitation, consent, causation, and the … Read more

On 16 July, Treasury released Exposure Draft legislation for the Financial Accountability Regime (FAR)(FAR Bill). While the FAR Bill has some similarities to the Banking Executive Accountability Regime (BEAR) in the Banking Act 1959 (Cth), there are some provisions of the FAR Bill which differ to BEAR and which raise concerns about over-regulation and uncertainty. … Read more

Today, Treasury released its consultation paper in relation to the Australian financial services license (AFSL) exemptions for foreign financial service providers (FFSPs) and the options to fast track AFSL applications for FFSPs. Read our insights here. If you have any questions, get in touch with one of our experts below.   Read more

Following the publication of our principles on the new anti-hawking regime for financial products, we have been advising many life insurers and general insurers on their readiness for the new regime, due to come into effect on 5 October 2021. This is without a doubt one of the biggest reforms to impact the insurance industry … Read more