Finder (ASIC): ASIC has commenced civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court against Finder Wallet Pty Ltd, for allegedly providing unlicensed financial services, breaching product disclosure
FAR & Breach Reporting (ASIC): I attended the Credit Law Conference earlier in the week, where ASIC Commissioner Sean Hughes provided an update on the Financial Accountability Regime (FAR) and breach reporting. My key notes are: – the Financial Accountability Regime Bill 2022…
Crypto Report (Parliament): I have now spent a bit of time on the new crypto bill. By way of reminder, on 19 September 2022, Senator Andrew Bragg released a draft private members bill, entitled the Digital Assets (Market Regulation) Bill 2022 (the Bill). Under the Bill, a licence is required to carry out the following activities in Australia…
FAR (Parliament): The FAR bill is in Parliament, and is likely to pass in the Spring sitting which ends in December 2022. See here for details. The Government is now seeking stakeholder views on the Minister Rules. The Minister Rules prescribe…
AG Priorities (Government): The meeting of the Federal and State Attorney-Generals has occurred with them setting out their common reform priorities. Not much from a financial services regulatory perspective. They continue to focus on defamation, access to digital records upon death/incapacitation and national register for enduring POAs…
Corporate Plan (APRA): APRA’s new Corporate Plan for 2022/2023 is based around the twin themes of protecting the community today, as well as ensuring the Australian financial system is prepared for tomorrow. The plan is designed to respond to rapid changes in APRA’s operating environment,…
CSLR (ASIC): Such an interesting time for updates from the corporate regulator, who has advised that “Former clients of Dixon Advisory and Superannuation Services Pty Limited (in administration, Dixon Advisory) may be eligible for compensation under a potential future Compensation Scheme of Last Resort but they…
FATCA/CRS (ATO): The ATO has issued a self-review guide and toolkit on the internal processes and systems that reporting financial institutions should maintain to comply with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act and the Common Reporting Standard, which has been something of a focus for it in preceding years…
Lanterne (ASIC): ASIC has commenced civil penalty proceedings against Lanterne Fund Services, alleging multiple failures to meet the obligations of its AFSL, including a failure to meet organisational competence requirements. It alleges Lanterne, under a licensee for hire business model e.g. under Corporate Authorised Representative…
Cyber Safety (ASIC): ASIC has urged listed firms to pay attention to cyber risks, noting World Economic Forum released its annual Global Risks Report 2022 and failure of cyber security measures was the number one risk for Australian executives. ASIC’s December 2021 resilience…
Crypto Legislation (US): I am not sure what is happening in the US with leaked documents recently, but the WSJ has leaked the draft crypto legislation which you can readhere. A dense document it is US legislation after all some of the key points are: the bill is centered around the terms digital asset…
AFSL Auditing (ASIC): ASIC has announced new financial reporting requirements for AFSL holders, following changes to the accounting standards. AFSL holders financial reports must now contain disclosures consistent with the financial reports of other for-profit entities, prepared under standards set by the AASB…
Federal ICAC (Election): the election is over, and the red team has formed a majority Government. Importantly, the main election promise Labor has made on integrity is to establish what it says will be a “powerful, transparent and independent National Anti-Corruption Commission.”…
Prudential Perspectives (APRA): Chair Wayne Byres has identified digital disruption, and the emergence of higher inflation and rising interest rates as key impacts affecting the banking industry in a speech to FINSIA. He also identified that common theme that increasingly pervades all three sectors of the industry…
Breach Reporting (Research): Independent research commissioned by Gadens and Lawcadia on the enhanced AFSL/ACL breach reporting regime has been released this week. In summary, this research reveals: a marked increased in breach reporting for AFSL and ACL holders; a suggestion…
Margin Requirements (APRA): The prudential regulator has made amendments to Prudential Standard CPS 226 Margining and risk mitigation for non-centrally cleared derivatives, by adding the UK’s Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority to the list of foreign regulators in Attachment D…
Capital Adequacy (APRA): The prudential regulator has released for consultation the interim reporting standards that will accompany the updated capital adequacy and credit risk capital requirements for authorised deposit-taking institutions. It follows the release in November 2021…
CDR Extension (Treasury): In January 2022, the Government announced that the Consumer Data Right (CDR) would expand to Open Finance as the next sector to be assessed. A massive step for the financial services industry, phase 1 of Open Finance will include the assessment and designation of the non-bank lending sector…
Youpla Group (ASIC): Very unusual. Following the liquidation of one funeral fund, ASIC has written to the directors of Youpla Group to ask them to take immediate and public action to address concerns about the financial viability of ACBF 1, ACBF Plan and ACBF Community. Youpla manages four entities that…
Advice Update (ASIC): ASIC has released a consultation paper setting out its proposals to update Regulatory Guide 263 Financial Services and Credit Panel (RG 263) to reflect legislative changes in the Financial Sector Reform (Hayne Royal Commission Response Better Advice) Act 2021…
FAR (Senate Report): The Senate Economics Legislation Committee has completed its report into the Financial Accountability Regime Bill 2021. The Committee has recommended that the bills be passed, complete with civil penalties introduced in the FAR regime (despite appreciable lobbying to the contrary)…
APRA priorities (APRA): The prudential regulator has released its policy and supervision priorities for the next 12 to 18 months. Policy priorities for 2022 include: a major multi-year initiative to modernise its prudential architecture; improving crisis preparedness, including finalising two new prudential standards…
Exchange Traded Products (ASIC): ASIC has released Consultation Paper 356 ETP naming conventions: Updates to INFO 230 (CP 356), seeking feedback on proposals to update the guidance in Information Sheet 230 Exchange-traded products: Admission guidelines (INFO 230), on naming conventions for licensed…
Liquidity Facility (APRA): APRA has issued a letter to banks announcing the aggregate Committed Liquidity Facility has reduced to $102 billion on 1 January 2022 from $140 billion on 10 September 2021.Since January 2015, those ADIs to which APRA applies the Basel III liquidity standards have…
Remediation (ASIC):ASIC has released the latest statisticson repayments for customers who have suffered loss or detriment because offees for no serviceissues ornon-compliant advice. AMP, ANZ, CBA, Macquarie, NAB and Westpac have paid / offered a total of $1.24B in compensation, as at 31 December 2020…
Continuous disclosure (Treasury):the Morrison Governmenthas introducedtheTreasury Laws Amendment (2021 Measures ?1) Bill 2021. It amends theCorporations Act 2001to embed the temporary COVID-19 changes made to Australias continuous disclosure laws, and extend the changes made to allow for virtual Annual…
General v. personal advice (Court):the High Court handed down its decision inWestpac Securities Administration Ltd v Australian Securities and Investments Commission[2021] HCA 3, dismissing Westpacs appeal against the Federal Courts decision that the marketing campaign by Westpac…
AML reforms (AUSTRAC):AUSTRAC has released proposed amendmentsto the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Rules for public consultation. The proposed changes are to support reforms to theAML/CTF Act 2006 (Cth)made by theAnti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing…
Secured borrowing (RBA):the RBA has issued an interetsing paper on the role of collateral in credit markets under stress. The paper shows that the presence of collateral affects reactions to stress and the reactions are different depending on the characteristics of the borrower. When the Lehman Brothers collapse in mid September…
Deferred sales model (Treasury):on 10 December 2020 Parliament passed theFinancial Sector Reform (Hayne Royal Commission Response) Bill 2020, which included the establishment an industry-wide deferred sales model (DSM) for add-on insurance in response to the recommendations of the Hayne Royal Commission…
Banking Code (ASIC):ASIC has approved variations to the Banking Code of Practice. The main change is that the amended Code specifies situations in which banks may decline to continue dealing with a representative that a customer in financial difficulty has appointed, if the bank reasonably considers that representative is no longer able…
Vatican focus (AUSTRAC): the Vatican and the Australian Catholic Church have both denied knowledge of transfers worth US$1.8 billion which Australias financial watchdog says have been sent from Rome to Australia in the past seven years. The figures were made public in December by the AUSTRAC in response to a parliamentary…
RI Advice (ASIC): in August 2019, the AFR reported that ASIC was planning on putting up to 50 cases in court by Christmas??many from the Hayne Royal Commission. By my count, we are not even close, though we have about 2 months to go and the numbers are rising: ASIC has commenced a Federal Court…
Market-based causation (Class Actions):oft-times regulatory actions spawn class actions e.g. the BBSW and FX class actions, so it is not too tangential to start this weeks update with the recentMyer class action decision. In short, the department stores shareholders alleged that it had engaged in misleading conduct by…
Financial sludge (ASIC):the Dutch Authority for Financial Markets (AFM) and ASIC havereleased a joint report on mandated disclosure requirements in financial markets. Simply put??disclosure is necessary but not enough on its own to drive good consumer outcomes. The report calls for a rethink on disclosure as…
UK / US data sharing (international):the US and UK have entered into theU.S.-UK Bilateral Data Access Agreement, which effectively gives law enforcement authorities from each of those countries the power to access data located outside their respective jurisdictions. For example, the US DOJ will have the power to access data…
Directors / Officers (ASIC):ASICs Corporate Governance Taskforce released a report entitledDirector and officer oversight of non-financial risk report.It is fascinating reading, setting out ASICs observations on D&O oversight of non?financial risk (i.e. operational, compliance and conduct risk) in seven large listed firms after…
Cigno v. ASIC (ASIC):Cigno has sought judicial review of ASICsfirst use of its new product intervention power in relation to short term credit which, in some cases, has resulted in repayment rates which are up to 1,000% of the initial loan sum achieved through layering of collateral fees. Basically, entity…
DDO / PIP (Treasury):a development I missed in last weeks update (apologies!), the Morrison Government has released for public consultation exposuredraft regulationsto support theTreasury Laws Amendment (Design and Distribution Obligations and Product Intervention Powers) Act 2019(Cth)…
Privilege (ASIC):in a rather interesting reversal, the hunter became the hunted inASIC -v- Mitchell[2019] FCA 1484where the First Defendant (the former VP of Tennis Australia) sought to challenge ASICs claim to legal professional privilege in relation to communications it had with potential witnesses prior to proceedings being issued…
Responsible lending:following ASICs release of itsconsultation paperin February 2019 in respect of updating its guidance on responsible lending (RG 209), ASIC announced that it intends to hold public hearings concerned with responsible lending practices (a prominent theme in the recent Hayne Royal Commission)…
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