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…
Regulatory performance (ASIC):the Regulator Performance Framework provides a set of six common KPIs for Australian Government regulators, and ASIC has just released itsself-assessmentof its performance against the KPIs in 201920. It felt it largely met its goals, for e.g. not unnecessarily impeding the efficient operation…
Financial institutions levy:financial industry levies recover the operational costs of APRA and other specific costs incurred by certain Commonwealth agencies, including the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the Australian Taxation Office, and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission…
Proxy advice (Treasury):proxy advice assists institutional shareholders e.g. super funds to make decisions on how to vote on matters put to shareholders for approval at company meetings. Proxy advisers thus have a large role to play in corporate governance in Australia and give our historically high degree of institutional…
Breach reporting (ASIC):ASIC has issuedConsultation Paper 340, seeking stakeholder feedback on proposed updates to its draft guidance on upcoming breach reporting reforms. ASIC seeks public comment on the draft guidance and information sheet by 3 June 2021. The consultation paper follows the Treasury consultation…
Litigation Funders (Legislation):The Federal Treasurer has announced that litigation funders will within 3 months be required to hold an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL), which will dramatically increase the Australian Securities and Investments Commissions (ASIC) regulatory oversight of them…
Class Action Inquiry (Parliament):following the ALRC and VLRC reports into class actions, on 12 May 2020 the Federal Attorney General referred to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services for inquiry and report by 7 December 2020 the question as toWhether the present level of regulation…
Royal Commission Reforms (Treasury):huge news??and long sought and lobbied for??the Morrison Governmenthas announceda six month deferral to the implementation of commitments associated with the Hayne Royal Commission as a result of the significant impacts of the coronavirus. Under the updated timetable…
Modern Slavery (Legislation):I wrote last week about an underwhelming update from the Australian Border Force, specific to the fact that it did not address any revision of the timing of Modern Slavery reports. In the wake of broader comment, this week the Australian Government has extended the deadline for entities…