APRA is seeking to improve the role of the Appointed Actuary in general and life insurance companies and has proposed some reforms in a discussion paper released earlier this year ...

The ASIC Enforcement Review Taskforce members and terms of reference have been announced The terms of reference are very broad and come as no surprise with an emphasis on evaluating the adequacy of ASICs enforcement toolkit We analyse the key themes that are likely to emerge ...

Australia and japan have enetered into an economic partnership agreement to reducel tariff barriers on the majority of Australian exports to Japan. In contrast to the recently concluded Korea-Australia Free Trade Agreement, it does not include an investor-state dispute settlement mechanism. ...

The High Court has recently highlighted the significance of internal contractual standards when interpreting an obligation to use reasonable endeavours Partner Nick Rudge and Lawyers Goran Gelic and Timothy Leschke report on this development and its implications ...

Green Bonds have been part of the international capital markets landscape for some time and recently the World Bank announced the first A Green Bonds to be issued into the Australian debt capital market If developments in the European Green Bond market are a good indicator there is potential for ...

The long-anticipated changes to the Franchising Code of Conduct are scheduled to take effect on 1 January 2015 Partners Tim Golder and Andrew Wiseman and Lawyer Nadia Guadagno report on the significant changes ...

The Federal Government has taken the first step towards achieving its announced intention of abolishing the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission and transferring some of its functions to the Australian Taxation Office and the yet-to-be-established National Centre for Excellence ...

A long-awaited change designed to reduce the compliance burden for security interests arising from short-term leases of serial numbered goods is one step closer to becoming law Partner Karla Fraser and Law Graduate Katharine Ward report ...

Issues of securities interests in managed investment schemes and other types of financial products typically involve a number of designated services under Australias anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing AMLCTF regime However in the midst of preparing governing documents disclosure ...

This week ASIC flagged a change in its approach to the exercise of its power to make orders to recover expenses and costs associated with investigations Information Sheet 204 indicates that ASIC will be making greater use of this power to seek recovery of its costs from individuals and companies ...