Corporate culture and its role in shaping conduct within the financial services sector is now clearly at the forefront of ASICs enforcement agenda This focus was apparent in ASICs 2014-2015 strategic outlook released in October 2014 which identified corporate culture as a key risk driver and poor ...

ASIC has released a consultation paper about client review and remediation programs to address client losses because of adviser misconduct Partners Michelle Levy and Malcolm Stephens look at what ASIC says a licensee should do if they identify systemic misconduct by advisers providing personal ...

The Board of Taxations report on tax arrangements applying to collective investment vehicles considers that offshore investors are dissuaded from investing in Australian funds because they do not understand unit trusts and that access to a broader range of collective investment vehicles would help ...

The High Court of Australia has decided that a third party claimant can join an insolvent or potentially insolvent defendants insurer to proceedings to seek a declaration that the insurer is liable to indemnify the defendant Partner Andrew Maher and Lawyer Shelley Drenth discuss the decision and its ...

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 ...

In its response to the capability review into ASIC the Federal Government has made a commitment to accelerate the implementation of a product intervention power for ASIC and the product design and distribution obligations for the financial services industry but it left to one side some other ...

Going into the 2013 election the present Government promised a review of the regulatory framework for retirement income streams Today the Government finally released its report It has been a long time coming And while the main outcome - a new category of tax effective pensions and annuities - will ...

Globalisation has created significant benefits for consumers by making products cheaper to purchase It has allowed consumers to access food that is out of season from halfway across the globe or regularly update the model of their phone However the long and complex supply chains that facilitate ...

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 Government has recently made changes to superannuation law that helps clear the way for trustees of regulated superannuation funds to charge fund assets in order to enter into a broad range of exchange-traded and Over-The-Counter derivative transactions The changes are intended to make it easier ...