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 ...

It has been recognised for some time that the domestic corporate bond market constitutes a weak spot in the otherwise robust and deep Australian capital markets The less developed domestic bond market is a distinguishing feature among the leading financial systems and capital markets This was no ...

A key risk faced by self-funded retirees is the possibility that their superannuation savings will not last as long as they will While lifetime pensions and annuities issued by life companies can assist in addressing this risk there has traditionally been a relatively low uptake of these products by ...

In his Interim Report, Commissioner Hayne rejected claims that misconduct in the financial services sector was the fault of 'a few bad apples' and did not raise 'broader or systemic concerns. This Insight considers what can and should be done about such systemic issues. ...

Allens has written over the course of this year, the Royal Commission will bring and in fact already has brought monumental changes both in how banks are regulated and to the actual laws that apply ...

The Australian Financial Complaints Authority AFCA the new one-stop-shop for resolving financial complaints has had a very busy first six months of operation ...

Many of you will be familiar with the long and tortured history of fees and costs disclosure regulation in Australia. The most recent set of issues can be traced back to 2014 when ASIC tried to address what it considered to be gaps in and inconsistent application of the former regime ...

The Federal Government has proposed to introduce two new forms of collective investment vehicle – each a shiny, tax-neutral alternative to the unit trust. ...

In his recent Interim Report into Misconduct in the Banking Superannuation and Financial Services Industry Commissioner Hayne makes a lot of the duties of an Australian financial services licensee and an Australian credit licensee to provide financial services or credit activities as the case may be ...

Although the Commissioner says that the Royal Commission is part of the executive and not the judiciary and that he is therefore not able to make any findings of law he comes pretty close in his views in response to Round 2 And in some important respects those views do not correspond with ...