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

This edition of Regulatory Rinkles focuses on certain aspects of the conflicted remuneration regime under Part 7.7A of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (Act), which are often ill understood. This focus is timely following the Royal Commission and the proposed end of the grandfathering regime. While the grandfathering of conflicted remuneration is coming to an … Read more

In the wake of ASIC’s recent announcement on enforcement in this area, we thought that it would be timely to set out: some key points about how the client money provisions operate, particularly with respect to application money; the pitfalls to look out for; and how some of the more technical provisions interact with each … Read more

Yesterday, ASIC provided an update on its surveillance activity on advertising and disclosure by investment funds, emphasising the importance of investment fund disclosure not being misleading and adequately addressing risk. It is important for licensees to bear in mind that the stance and views taken by ASIC can be applied equally to other products, such … Read more

Today, ASIC published its Interim Corporate Plan for the 2020–2021 financial year and an updated timetable of its ongoing work up to the second quarter of 2021. Key dates with respect to legal and regulatory reform in the financial and credit services industries are set out in the table below: Project Indicative timing Product intervention … Read more

ASIC has (again) flagged that it will be amending the transitional arrangements in the ASIC Corporations (Disclosure of Fees and Costs) Instrument 2019/1070 (Instrument) on its superannuation fund COVID-19 FAQ page: ASIC will be amending the transitional arrangements for Product Disclosure Statements (PDSs) shortly to allow entities to come into the new disclosure regime from … Read more

The Court of Appeal has emphatically confirmed that “the function of the trustees is to manage and administer the scheme; not to design it” in a recent judgement handed down in the UK. Read more

By Philip Hopley The federal government has just released for public consultation a second exposure draft of the legislation that will introduce financial product design and distribution obligations into the Corporations Act and give ASIC new enforcement powers, which includes the issuing of stop orders. Having considered the submissions provided on the first draft of exposure legislation … Read more