Treasurer Scott Morrison this week announced that he has tasked the Productivity Commission to review the state of competition in Australias financial system The Budget has also included other measures focused on competition in the financial sector including funding to establish a dedicated ACCC ...

Major reforms to environmental bonds and rehabilitation requirements are proposed in two discussion papers released by the Queensland Government All mining sector operators should understand how the reforms will impact their current and proposed operations Partner Bill McCredie and Senior Associate ...

ASICs new regulatory guidance focuses on managing conflicts of interest and material non-public information when providing sell-side research As well as providing extensive guidance on managing conflicts of interest during the capital raising process ASIC provides its views on payment of ...

In examining the topic of consumer lending the Commission considered issues arising from the sale of credit products ndash including residential mortgages car finance and credit cards - by reference to case studies involving the four major banks as well as Aussie Home Loans and Citi ...

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 ...

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 ...

The Federal Governments response to the Productivity Commissions report on data availability and use released this week outlines a bold vision but has a surprising lack of detail suggesting implementation is likely to be some way off If legislation is introduced the new regime will result in a ...

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

A lot has happened since our most recent update The Royal Commission has published the submissions received from ASIC and industry participants on policy questions posed by Counsel Assisting at the end of the financial advice hearings And the small business lending hearings have been held ...