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

On 20 October 2022, Herbert Smith Freehills published our sixth edition of the Global Bank Review: Banking on People. Against a backdrop of increased societal expectations, shifting employee priorities, reliance on technology and an uncertain economic outlook, ‘Banking on People’ delves deeper into the people-centric issues our banks clients are grappling with and explores the … Read more

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has released its consultation on a new cross-industry prudential standard for operational risk management, CPS 230, which proposes to introduce a range of new requirements on APRA-regulated entities for managing operational risk and enhance existing requirements for business continuity and service provider management. Operational resilience is critical to the … Read more

Public attention on the ways Australian superannuation funds are engaging with the challenges of climate change has never been greater. Media reporting of Australia’s position at COP26, together with concerted advertising by some funds of their sustainability credentials, means that members are more interested than ever about how their monies are being deployed. This interest … Read more

Our Financial Services Regulatory team surveys the regulatory landscape for 2022 and identifies themes that we expect to be at the core of regulatory priorities globally over the next 12 months.  On 7 December 2021, HSF published its annual Financial Services Regulatory Outlook report surveying the global regulatory landscape for 2022 which addressed the following … Read more

As recently recognised by our financial services partner Michael Vrisakis, understanding the Corporations law is much like unpacking Russian dolls. Put simply, complying with the Corporations law is more difficult than it needs to be. But we don’t need to tell you that. In its first (interim) Financial Services Legislation Report published yesterday, the ALRC … Read more

On 17 November 2021, ASIC released draft updated guidance on consumer remediation for all AFS licensees, Australian credit licensees and retirement savings account providers. The draft guidance is attached to Consultation Paper 350 Consumer remediation: Further consultation (CP 350). This article considers the key features of the draft guidance with a particular focus on significant … Read more