The breach reporting regime continues to give rise to ambiguity for licensees. As we have commented previously, there continues to be a mismatch in breach reporting practices across the industry and ASIC expectations, as well as a divergence of breach reporting practices between licensees. A common area of over-reporting is in the context of reporting … Read more

Sections 12BF-12BM of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (Cth) (ASIC Act) contain provisions designed to protect consumers and certain small business in respect of unfair contract terms in relation to their application to financial services (UCT Regime). The introduction of civil penalties in the UCT Regime in late 2022 and the flow-on … Read more

It is common for superannuation trustees to seek to amend the governing rules of a superannuation fund. This regularly occurs during fund and product rationalisation activity, successor fund transfers, and new product launches. The typical formula for assessing whether a trust deed amendment can be made by the trustee will involve: examining the amendment power … Read more

The new best financial interests duty (BFID) for superannuation trustees should represent a pathway to improve the decision-making of the trustee to better, or at least more visibly, calibrate with the interests of the fund’s beneficiaries. In this, it seems, it should be a ‘beautiful’ thing. The problem which the superannuation industry has been confronting, … Read more

Our Financial Services Regulatory (FSR) team surveys the regulatory landscape for 2023 and considers the challenges confronting firms and regulators. Firms now face a maelstrom of risks as 2023 comes into view. Economic and geopolitical uncertainty has aggravated already rising interest rates and inflation, causing supply chain issues and increased volatility in the commodities and … Read more

The continuing uncertainty around the provision requiring licensees to provide financial services ‘efficiently, honestly and fairly’ under section 912A(1)(a) of the Corporations Act (EHF provision) comes into sharpest focus against the backdrop of the new breach reporting regime. In this article, we examine some common questions and challenges we are seeing emerge in relation to … Read more

On 27 October 2022, ASIC released its first publication of information lodged under the new breach reporting regime, Report 740 Insights from the reportable situations regime: October 2021 to June 2022 (Report 740). As readers will be aware, the new breach reporting regime for financial services came into effect on 1 October 2021, seeking to … Read more

The Decision Yesterday’s decision of the Full Federal Court in MetLife Insurance Limited v Australian Financial Complaints Authority Limited [2022] FCAFC 173 upheld MetLife’s contention that AFCA does not have jurisdiction to hear complaints made directly against life companies relating to life insurance in superannuation. The issue arose due to a specific complaint which was … Read more