671-680 of 946 results
FoFA Bill passed by Senate
The Governments Future of Financial Advice Bill was passed by the Senate yesterday While the Bill began its life as the so-called Streamlining Bill introduced by the Government on 19 March 2014 the Bill as passed yesterday bears very little resemblance to the Bill as originally introduced It is ...
Mergers & Acquisitions: changes to Australia's foreign investment framework
The Australian Government has announced wide reaching changes to Australias foreign investment framework that will apply from 1 December 2015 Partner Wendy Rae reports on the potential impacts of the changes which include new fees stricter enforcement and penalties and increased scrutiny around ...
Finality: an important objective of class actions
The recent Great Southern class action settlement included a term by which group members acknowledged and admitted that loans taken out with independent financiers to finance investments in Great Southern managed investment schemes were valid and enforceable Two separate Victorian Supreme Court ...
Victorian property tax surcharge on foreign purchasers and absentee landowners
The Victorian Government has introduced legislation to impose a 3 per cent stamp duty surcharge on foreign purchasers of residential land and a 05 per cent land tax surcharge on absentee owners of both residential and other land The proposed legislation is very broad and applies to both direct and ...
ASIC's guidance on conflicts in vertically integrated funds-management businesses
ASIC has released a report looking at the way vertically integrated funds management businesses deal with conflicts of interest The report summarises the findings of ASICs recent review of a number of businesses and sets out some good practice recommendations Partner Marc Kemp and Senior Associate ...
Defining the objective of superannuation
The Government released a discussion paper on the Objective of Superannuation today The paper says that the Government will enshrine in legislation the primary objective recommended by the Financial System Inquiry being To provide income in retirement to substitute or supplement the Age Pension ...
New guidelines for unsolicited proposals for State-owned land in WA
The WA Government has issued its formal guidelines for unsolicited proposals for the sale or lease of State-owned land By embracing the possibility of unsolicited proposals as opposed to encumbering every development opportunity with a procurement process and by expressing a willingness to engage ...
Raising professional standards of financial advisers
Following on from the reviews conducted by the Parliamentary Joint Committee and the Financial System Inquiry the Government delivered on its promises by releasing an exposure draft of the Corporations Amendment Professional Standards of Financial Advisers Bill 2015 the Bill late last year for ...
The UK's focus on personal accountability for bank employees: a sign of things to come?
Last month we discussed the carrot in the UK Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards - how the regulators are making sure remuneration for bank staff encourages prudent risk behaviour This month we are looking at the stick - how the UK is strengthening regulators enforcement armoury to enable ...
Judicial review of adjudication determinations - a new expansive approach?
In a recent decision the Supreme Court of Western Australia quashed two adjudication determinations on the basis of jurisdictional error At the core of the decision was a finding that the adjudicator had misapplied the terms of the relevant construction contract The decision suggests that an ...