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

On 28 April 2021, the Senate Select Committee on Australia as a Technology & Financial Centre (previously known as the Select Committee on FinTech & RegTech) released its Second Interim Report. The Second Interim Report addresses digital assets and the need for a policy framework as well as regulatory issues concerning the consumer data right. … Read more

The Final Report of the Financial Services Royal Commission called for a follow-up review into the ethics and standards in the financial services sector. In response to this, on 21 April 2021 at the FSC Life Insurance Summit, Financial Services Minister Jane Hume announced that the Government will commission a review of the financial advice … Read more

This edition of our ‘FSR GPS’ (Guidelines, Principles and Strategies) series covers the proposed laws recently tabled before Parliament to introduce a new ‘financial service’ in the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (Corporations Act) and Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (Cth) (ASIC Act), namely, the financial service of ‘providing a superannuation trustee service’. In … 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

Commercial behaviour falls on a spectrum. On one end, we find healthy marketplace competition, on the other end, we find behaviour that is downright predatory. The critical question for financial services providers is: at what point does capitalising on a commercial advantage actually become unconscionable? 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