An exposure draft of proposed legislative amendments designed to reduce the compliance burden for businesses has been released by the Federal Government The amendments include long-awaited changes to the dividend payment rules the abolition of the 100 member rule and updates to remuneration ...

The Federal Government has taken the first step towards achieving its announced intention of abolishing the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission and transferring some of its functions to the Australian Taxation Office and the yet-to-be-established National Centre for Excellence ...

The Corporations and Markets Advisory Committees discussion paper about the establishment and operation of managed investment schemes particularly examines governance disclosure and regulatory issues If the changes are implemented it could profoundly affect these schemes Partners Marc Kemp and Penny ...

A recent decision of the High Court could intensify uncertainty about the legitimacy of resolving civil penalty proceedings by the regulator and the defendant approaching the court with an agreed penalty supported by an agreed statement of facts Partner Matthew McLennan and Lawyer Megan Sandler ...

The ASX has announced that it has now received regulatory clearance for its new mFund Settlement Service previously known as AQUA II and the ASX Managed Funds Service which it hopes will be launched before 30 June 2014 Once established the service will allow investors to transact electronically in ...

In the past 12 months the Indian Parliament has passed two important pieces of legislation relating to corporate social responsibility and the allegations of corruption made against public servants. How does it affect you? ...

In recent times APRA has been active in prescribing duties for directors of the institutions it regulates In light of what has happened it is worth asking should the question of directors duties be excluded from APRAs prudential standard-making powers ...

From 1 January 2015 a new common risk management prudential standard will apply to banks general insurers and life companies and in many cases to other companies in the corporate groups in which those institutions sit Michael Mathieson looks at the three lines of defence model that APRA proposes to ...

We have previously reported on ASICs submission to the Financial System Inquiry FSI and in particular its assertion that it needs a broader range of more onerous financial penalties in order to punish and deter corporate wrongdoing ASIC made similar submissions to the recent inquiry by the Senate ...

The recent Federal budget included measures to abolish some government bodies by 1 July 2015 One of those is the Corporations and Markets Advisory Committee CAMAC This is a pity for those involved in the funds management industry because it means that CAMAC is no longer accepting submissions in ...