With the end of the transitional period under the personal property securities legislation fast approaching those entities that rely upon having interests in property held by others must act now to ensure those interests are properly registered even where they are transitional so there is no loss of ...

The High Court has reaffirmed the powers of a responsible entity are ultimately derived from the scheme's constitution, but the exercise of those powers is constrained by the statutory and fiduciary duties imposed on the responsible entity. ...

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 ...

A recent Federal Court decision highlights the importance of managing the provision of information and documentation to third parties with caution in order to preserve legal professional privilege Partner Richard Harris and Senior Associate Elnaz Nikibin report on the case ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...