The Federal Government today introduced a Bill into Parliament to implement its proposed amendments to the Future of Financial Advice legislation There are some significant differences between the Bill as introduced and the earlier exposure draft version released in January The proposed reforms are ...

One of the more interesting possibilities raised in the Interim Report of David Murrays Financial System Inquiry is the introduction of product suitability requirements as a complement to the current disclosure regime The Interim Report presents a case for change but does not set out in detail what ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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. ...

With large-scale privatisations slowing and intense competition for assets that do come to market institutional investors are looking to non-traditional assets to provide similar long-term stable and predictable returns ...

As regulatory and political pressure increases on the major banks in Australia alternative credit providers are entering the market with a variety of products to attract borrowers The unitranche loan is an example of one such product Partner Warwick Newell Senior Overseas Practitioner Alex Tonkin ...