The Federal Government has made the 'time critical' FoFA amendments with new regulations saying that any financial product advice provided to an employer about their default superannuation fund is a financial service provided to a retail client. ...

Superannuation fund trustees and their lawyers including this one have been grappling for years with what the covenant in section 522c of the Superannuation Industry Supervision Act 1993 means What must a trustee do to exercise its powers and discharge its duties in the best interests of ...

Today the Full Federal Court clarified the law of penalties as it applies to fees The key development is that in considering whether the amount of a fee is extravagant and exorbitant compared to the potential costs incurred in dealing with a failure to perform an obligation the court held that ...

In 2014 ASIC started promoting the use of behavioural economics in its regulatory activities Two reports recently released by ASIC provide clues as to how ASIC may try to counteract behavioural biases in the future ...

The Federal Government today released its long-awaited response to the Financial System Inquiry The Government says it has accepted all but one of the Inquirys 44 recommendations released late last year And this is broadly true with the only substantial recommendation to be rejected being the ...

There is lots of noise about the duties of financial advisers and lawyers including us love to debate whether FoFA has left any room for fiduciary obligations ...

In recent times APRA has been active in prescribing duties for directors of the institutions it regulates In light of what has happened it is worth asking should the question of directors duties be excluded from APRAs prudential standard-making powers ...

In the aftermath of the global financial crisis governments and regulators have been busy identifying ways to better protect the financial system from future shocks Among these are measures for arming financial regulators with a more comprehensive crisis management toolkit Of particular concern are ...

Commissioner Haynes recommendations may initially seem somewhat modest - they do not undo vertical integration impose limits on executive remuneration or ban bonuses and they do not recommend that directors prefer the interests of their customers But while it is true that the recommendations are not ...

The Treasurer, the Honourable Josh Frydenberg, released the Government's 'Implementation Roadmap' today to 'provide clarity and certainty' about the Government's ongoing work to implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission ...