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

This edition of our ‘FSR GPS’ (Guidelines, Principles and Strategies) series covers the upcoming changes to the anti-hawking regime for financial products in the Corporations Act, with the new regime coming into effect on 5 October 2021. In this article, we outline: our 12 legal principles which go to the heart of the new anti-hawking … Read more

Operational resilience is the next phase in the evolution of financial services regulatory policy. We approach this resilience at a conceptual level, identifying 5 elements which make up a holistic operational resilience framework: Financial resilience – capital, liquidity, prudence; People resilience – governance, accountability, culture; Structural resilience – clarity of operational and legal structures; Regulatory … Read more

In this article, we address a cryptic pillar of the current Banking Executive Accountability Regime (BEAR) and the proposed Financial Accountability Regime (FAR): the obligation to deal with APRA and ASIC in an open, constructive and cooperative way. What would this obligation require? What would it not require? How can we prepare for it? In … Read more

This edition of our ‘FSR GPS’ (Guidelines, Principles and Strategies) series covers proposed laws recently tabled before Parliament to impose a statutory condition (Condition) on RSE licensees to have ‘no other duty to act in the interests of another person’ other than a duty that arises in the course of: acting as an RSE licensee; … Read more

ASIC has published INFO 252, a long-awaited information sheet which addresses conduct risk issues for both sell-side and buy-side firms arising out of the discontinuation of LIBOR. As the transition from LIBOR rates to alternative reference rates (ARRs) enters its final stage (with the end of 2021 assumed to be the deadline by which transition … Read more

This article is a part of our Remediation Round-Up series which explores potential issues for financial services licensees when conducting remediation and ways to optimise the design of remediation programs. Key points ASIC is expected to obtain a joint mandate with APRA to regulate the operation of superannuation funds. Once this mandate is introduced, we … Read more

This article is a part of our Remediation Round-Up series which explores potential issues for financial services licensees when conducting remediation and ways to optimise the design of remediation programs. Introduction Financial advice has been a very significant area for financial services remediation in Australia in recent years. ‘Financial advice remediation’ is a broad term … Read more