The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has announced that it will take no action where a self-managed superannuation fund trustee is treated as a wholesale client notwithstanding that the trustee does not have to meet the 10 million net asset threshold even though the financial service ...

Exposure draft life insurance regulations were released yesterday They are a marked departure from the existing conflicted remuneration provisions Now a benefit can only be conflicted remuneration if it could reasonably be expected to influence financial product advice These regulations will create ...

The Bill to amend the conflicted remuneration provisions in the Corporations Act for life insurance has been introduced into Parliament a second time and draft regulations have been released for comment However we struggle to know how to describe them because the changes seem to have conflicting ...

There were three announcements this week that will serve to bolster the emerging Australian FinTech sector The Government released a statement in support of FinTech as part of its National Innovation and Science Agenda while ASIC issued two sets of guidance an information sheet for providers of ...

ASIC is consulting on a new regulatory guide for providers of digital financial product advice or robo-advice The regulatory guide is intended to help new entrants and existing Australian financial services licence holders For new entrants and licensees needing a reminder there is a nice summary of ...

Has talk of a royal commission turned the ASIC Capability Review into an unlikely catalyst for an enhanced enforcement agenda With Labor pushing hard for a royal commission into the banking and financial services industry and an election looming the Government moved swiftly to announce broad reform ...

In its response to the capability review into ASIC the Federal Government has made a commitment to accelerate the implementation of a product intervention power for ASIC and the product design and distribution obligations for the financial services industry but it left to one side some other ...

Going into the 2013 election the present Government promised a review of the regulatory framework for retirement income streams Today the Government finally released its report It has been a long time coming And while the main outcome - a new category of tax effective pensions and annuities - will ...

Perhaps the biggest issue dealt with in the superannuation hearings is how various forms of conflicts create perverse incentives for trustees to not comply with their duties. ...

During the agricultural round of hearings, and in his Interim Report, the Commissioner asked if there should be special rules for farmers to address the particular challenges of the sector, and if so, who should bear the added cost? ...