On 11 September 2020, Attorney-General Christian Porter MP announced that a review of the legislative framework for corporations and financial services regulation had been referred to the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC). This review follows recommendations of the Banking Royal Commission, which noted that the complexity of the current regulatory regime is preventing the intent … Read more

Our “FSR GPS” (Guidelines, Principles and Strategies) series is designed to assist financial institutions navigate often complex, and sometimes opaque or ambiguous, legal provisions, with a view to assisting institutions formulate practical and strategic legal and business solutions. This edition aims to provide practical guidance to in-house lawyers and businesses on how to navigate the … Read more

The doctrine of unconscionable conduct has experienced a resurgence in financial services regulation, with ASIC increasingly bringing enforcement action on the basis of this doctrine. On 17 July 2020, ASIC commenced civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia against Forex Capital Trading Pty Ltd and its sole director, alleging numerous acts of unconscionable conduct. … Read more

Background This edition of HSF FSR Australia Notes is the first in our series dealing with legal remediation issues arising from exercises undertaken post Royal Commission. In this edition, as the title indicates, we examine the topical issue of where compensation payments should be made in a situation where multiple parties have been involved in … Read more

Written by Michael Vrisakis, Hartley Spring, Shan Verne-Liew and Nathan Hauser Introduction This month we expect to read the written submission filed by ASIC in respect of the High Court case of Westpac Securities Administration Limited v ASIC (High Court of Australia, S29/2020, commenced 7 May 2020). The case concerns whether certain call centre scripts contained general … Read more

THE ISSUE The issue of differential pricing of financial products on investment platforms has arisen as a news item over the past several weeks. This edition of FSR Australia Notes sheds some light on this topic, and the legal furphies and controversies surrounding it. THE STARTING POINT The starting point is to articulate the concept … Read more

This edition of Regulatory Rinkles follows on from our previous edition on Spotlight on Conflicted Remuneration and focuses on the transitional issues facing product issuers and advice licensees who are looking to end or deal with their existing grandfathered arrangements before the grandfathering exemption is removed from 1 January 2021. LEGISLATIVE BACKGROUND – THE END … Read more

This edition of our FSR Australia Notes focuses on the concept and dimensions of regulatory risk. We see this as an increasingly important area of financial services regulation, as following the Financial Services Royal Commission, a financial institution’s relationship with the regulators is particularly paramount. There are many factors underpinning this observation, including the more … Read more