61-70 of 90 results
Act fast, act well: Federal Court decision reinforces the importance of robust compliance programs for banks and other financial services licensees
Chief Justice Allsop of the Federal Court recently imposed on a bank, by consent of ASIC and the bank, civil penalties totalling $10 million for unconscionable conduct in carrying out an inadequate customer remediation process. It highlights the importance of banks and other financial services licensees having in place robust compliance programs and taking prompt and comprehensive action where possible non-compliance is identified. ...
Nucleus – corporate law developments: Second tranche of draft FIRB reforms; ASIC Corporate Plan for 2020-24; High Court clarifies personal/carer's leave entitlements; and other corporate law developments
Second tranche of draft FIRB reforms released; ASIC releases Corporate Plan for 2020-24; ASIC grants relief for escrow and non-promotional communications for IPOs and updates RG5 and RG254; High Court sides with employers and clarifies personal/carer's leave entitlements; ACCC releases ninth interim gas inquiry report; extension of temporary COVID-19 continuous disclosure and insolvency relief measures; ALRC reports on Australia's corporate criminal responsibility regime. ...
Superannuation trustees and 'efficiently, honestly and fairly'
The Federal Court has made declarations that two superannuation fund trustees contravened ss912A(1)(a) (efficient, honest and fair obligation) and 1041H (misleading or deceptive conduct) of the Corporations Act, and s12DA (misleading or deceptive conduct) of the ASIC Act. ...
ASIC issues hardship withdrawal relief to responsible entities
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, ASIC has provided relief reminiscent of the GFC to allow hardship withdrawals from frozen funds. The COVID-19 version of hardship-relief goes further than its GFC predecessor in many respects. We provide an overview of the issue. ...
ASIC's Corporate Plan 2020-2024
ASIC's Corporate Plan sets out its strategic priorities and actions for the next four years, especially its approach to its supervisory, surveillance and enforcement functions, and how each of those may have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. ...
The road ahead – secondaries markets in 2H 2020 and considerations for superannuation and institutional LPs
We look ahead to the green shoots in the secondaries market with expectations of increased deal activity in the second half of 2020 and discuss the thematics for superannuation and institutional LP participants over this period. ...
Financial advice relief – all talk and no-action
We said at the outset of this pandemic that financial advice will play an important role in supporting members who are considering whether to access their super early. Alive to that, ASIC recently released a series of measures to facilitate access to financial advice ...
Retail banking and responsible lending during COVID-19
The sudden and unknown nature of COVID-19 has triggered a global economic shock, and disrupted Australia's economy. As we enter a national state of economic 'hibernation', banks and lenders are grappling with a sudden influx of relief requests from consumer and business customers. ...
ASIC's new work schedule and priorities in light of the COVID-19 crisis
On 14 April, ASIC published a media release detailing changes to its regulatory framework and priorities in light of COVID-19. This follows an earlier statement by ASIC, which indicated that it would temporarily change its regulatory work and priorities to allow it and regulated entities to focus on the impact of COVID-19. ...
Continuous disclosure during COVID-19: shining the spotlight on earnings and debt
In its latest compliance update, ASX reiterated that entities in financial difficulty (including with respect to their debt arrangements) will receive no special treatment. On earnings guidance, it was acknowledged that many listed entities have taken the opportunity to withdraw guidance issued before the outbreak of COVID-19. ASX also strongly encouraged entities to review their published guidance in light of COVID-19 and to either update it if it was not current or withdraw it in this highly uncertain climate. ...