In his recent Interim Report into Misconduct in the Banking Superannuation and Financial Services Industry Commissioner Hayne makes a lot of the duties of an Australian financial services licensee and an Australian credit licensee to provide financial services or credit activities as the case may be ...

Although the Commissioner says that the Royal Commission is part of the executive and not the judiciary and that he is therefore not able to make any findings of law he comes pretty close in his views in response to Round 2 And in some important respects those views do not correspond with ...

Class action risk continues to increase and is becoming more complex than ever before. Assessing this risk for your organisation is extraordinarily challenging and requires a broad-based perspective of the broader class actions landscape. ...

In his Interim Report, Commissioner Hayne rejected claims that misconduct in the financial services sector was the fault of 'a few bad apples' and did not raise 'broader or systemic concerns. This Insight considers what can and should be done about such systemic issues. ...

Proposed changes to the FSC Life Insurance Code designed to improve standards in product design sales underwriting customer service complaints and claim handling are afoot and the deadline for comments is fast approaching ...

The Australian Financial Complaints Authority AFCA the new one-stop-shop for resolving financial complaints has had a very busy first six months of operation ...

In the Radio Rentals Class Action, the Federal Court of Australia has ordered - over the objection of an Insurer - that a respondent disclose its insurance policies to the applicant. ...

The Queensland Supreme Court has refused an application by a class action plaintiff seeking to compel the defendant to disclose its insurance policy and documents relating to its insurance position. In doing so, the court commented on the recent Federal Court decision in the Radio Rentals class action but came to a different result on the facts. This decision shows that when determining whether or not to make an order for disclosure, the court is likely to take into account the defendant's financial capacity, and may be less likely to make such an order where the defendant's solvency is not a concern. ...

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 ...

A recent Victorian Supreme Court decision has resolved a disputed construction of a major shareholder exclusion in a DO policy in the insurers favour after considering the broad commercial purpose of these provisions Partner Andrew Maher and Law Graduate Shelley Drenth report ...