The Federal Government announced late last week that the first agreement under its 5 billion Asset Recycling Initiative has been signed with the ACT Government demonstrating the Federal Governments commitment to the Initiative despite the underlying legislation remaining stalled by the Senate ...

Partners David Donnelly and Nicholas Ng examine public-private partnerships PPPs in Australia including the year in review the general framework bidding and award procedures recent decisions and the outlook for 2015 ...

The Australian and Singaporean governments have recently concluded discussions on a landmark agreement that will see the two countries cooperating across a range of strategic initiatives including in the areas of trade and economics innovation education people and defence The Comprehensive Strategic ...

The introduction of the Asia Region Funds Passport ARFP has been in the works for some time The ARFP was one of the recommendations coming out of the 2009 Johnson Report and aims to provide a basis for cross-border marketing of managed funds in the Asia region While there has been a tendency to ...

A recent decision of the Victorian Court of Appeal has given a wide meaning to the Code of Banking Practice finding that the duty of care owed by a lender in assessing the borrowers ability to repay extends to guarantors Effectively the bank was responsible to guarantordirectors for funding their ...

The FSI report recommended that the Government facilitate rationalisation of legacy products in the life insurance and managed investment scheme industries The need for ways to close legacy products has been kicking around for at least a decade and in 2007 Treasury released a very thorough options ...

You might be getting tired of all of the talk about innovation and keen to see some of it actually happen The Governments recent announcements could help but there is a long way to go before the mining boom becomes the ideas boom ...

ASIC has released a consultation paper on proposals to facilitate innovation in the financial services sector The proposals include details of the long-awaited regulatory sandbox It will be of interest to both emerging companies who may rely on the relief as well as investors in this space Senior ...

The Australian Government has identified value capture and innovative financing as key elements of its Smart Cities Plan The move will have significant implications for traditional project finance By Paul Kenny Sector Leader Government and Phillip Cornwell Project Finance Consultant at Allens ...

New South Wales has introduced a stamp duty surcharge of 4 per cent for direct and indirect acquisitions of residential land by foreign purchasers, with effect from 21 June 16. A land tax surcharge of 0.75 per cent will also be imposed on residential land owned by foreign persons, commencing 31/12 ...