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International Law

Australian Regulatory Compliance Review

information about Australian laws, regulations and legal compliance particulartly in the financial services industry

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Last Entry: June 15, 2014 at 16:41:06

Unfair Terms in Insurance Contracts

Posted on March 16, 2010
The Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law, Chris Bowen MP, has released an options paper relating to unfair terms included in insurance contracts. The paper discusses the nature and scope of the problem, the adequacy of existing regulation and identifying and assess options to remedy the problem...

Australian Consumer Law passed

Posted on March 16, 2010
The Trade Practices Amendment (Australian Consumer Law) Bill 2009 has been passed by the Senate, with amendments. The national unfair contract terms law will not commence before 1 July 2010.

Austrac intepretation of agency

Posted on March 16, 2010
Austrac has issued Public Legal Interpretation 10 (PLI 10) Agency and the AML/CTF Act. As the AML/CTF Act does not define an ‘agent’ or an ‘agency’ arrangement, Austrac issued this interpretation to set out its views on the principles of agency under this Act...

Personal Property Securities Act amendments

Posted on March 14, 2010
The Personal Property Securities (Corporations and Other Amendments) Bill 2010 has been introduced into Parliament. The Bill amends the Corporations Act, as foreshadowed last year (see here) . It also amends the Personal Property Securities Act (PPS Act) (background here) and its transitional provisions and makes consequential amendments to other Commonwealth legislation...

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Trustee companies licensing requirements

Posted on March 14, 2010
ASIC has released Consultation Paper 132 Trustee companies: Financial requirement and conduct obligations (CP 132) seeking public comment on the financial requirements and other conduct obligations for trustee companies that provide traditional trustee company services (traditional services), such as acting in deceased estates and under powers of attorney...

ASIC share purchase plan relief

Posted on March 14, 2010
ASIC has released changes to Class Order [CO 09/425], which provides prospectus and product disclosure statement relief for share and interest purchase plans. Under the changes, investors holding shares through structures such as investor-directed portfolio services and superannuation master trusts, or who hold shares through structures involving two or more levels of custodians, will now [...

Superannuation borrowing changes

Posted on March 10, 2010
The Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law, Chris Bowen MP, has announced that the Government proposes to amend the Corporations Regulations 2001 to provide that certain borrowing arrangements by superannuation fund trustees permitted by the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (the SIS Act) are financial products under the Corporations Act 2001...

AML amendments

Posted on March 08, 2010
The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 has been amended by the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Serious and Organised Crime) Act 2010. Section 10 and the designated services at items 31 and 32 of Table 1 in subsection 6(2) of the AML/CTF Act have been amended to capture arrangements where a non-financier receives an instruction from [...

Government responds to unconscionable conduct and franchising report

Posted on March 07, 2010
The Government has announced it will amend the Trade Practices Act to clarify the unconscionable conduct provisions of the Trade Practices Act. The changes are in response to an expert panel report entitled Strengthening statutory unconscionable conduct and the Franchising Code of Conduct...

APRA prudential standards for life insurers

Posted on March 07, 2010
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has released final prudential standards on enhancements to the prudential framework for life insurance companies. Legislation was passed in 2009 that gave APRA power to regulate non-operating holding companies (NOHCs) of life insurance companies, including the power to determine prudential standards for life NOHCs...

Privacy and data breaches

Posted on March 04, 2010
This article by me was first published in Retail Banking Review here. Last year?s Heartland Payment Systems? spectacular data breach stemmed from errors that allowed hackers to break into the payment processor’s networks and steal data on approximately 130 million credit and debit cards over several months...

Draft trustee licensing regulations released

Posted on March 01, 2010
Treasury has released amended�draft Regulations and explanatory material for the Corporations Amendment Regulations 2010 and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Amendment Regulations 2010 in relation to the licensing of trustee corporations pursuant to Schedule 2 of the Corporations Legislation Amendment (Financial Services Modernisation) Act 2009 which received Royal Assent on 6 November 2009.

ASIC consults on market integrity rules

Posted on February 28, 2010
ASIC has released Consultation Paper 131 Proposed ASIC Market Integrity Rules ? ASX and SFE Markets (CP 131) which proposes market integrity rules to apply to trading on ASX and SFE markets, based on the existing rules of these markets, while clarifying the supervisory responsibilities of ASIC and market operators...

Bills update

Posted on February 25, 2010
�The Corporations Amendment (Financial Market Supervision) Bill 2010 and the National Consumer Credit Protection Amendment Bill 2010 were passed by the House of Representatives on 23 February and introduced into the Senate on 24 February. The Fairer Private Health Insurance Incentives (Medicare Levy Surcharge) Bill 2009 [No...

ASIC relief for group insurance arrangements

Posted on February 24, 2010
ASIC has issued Class Order [CO 10/116] Group purchasing bodies ? variation of Class Order [CO 08/1] to provide certainty about who will be eligible for relief and to introduce greater flexibility for compliance with the conditions of AFS licensing relief for the insurance industry and some group purchasing bodies...

COAG performance report released

Posted on February 24, 2010
The COAG Reform Council has released its first report to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) on performance against the National Partnership Agreement to Deliver a Seamless National Economy. The National Partnership Agreement to Deliver a Seamless National Economy is an agreement by all Australian governments to deliver more consistent, better regulation across Australia, and [...

Senate committee supports Bankruptcy Amendment Bill

Posted on February 24, 2010
The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee has recommended that the Senate pass the Bankruptcy Legislation Amendment Bill 2009 in its present form. One of the most contentious issues was the creditor’s petition threshold. The Report states: the committee considers it appropriate to increase the existing $2,000 threshold for a creditor’s petition to $10,000...

Senate committee supports Do Not Call Register extension

Posted on February 24, 2010
The Senate Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts Committee has recommended that the Do Not Call Register Legislation Amendment Bill 2009 be passed. The Committee said that “On balance, the committee does not believe that the costs of complying with the bill will be excessive or prohibitive...

Proposed Changes to the Do Not Call Register Act

Posted on February 22, 2010
The Do Not Call Register Legislation Amendment Bill was introduced to Parliament late last year. It proposes to broaden the scope of the Do Not Call Register. The Senate Environment, Communications and the Arts Legislation Committee is due to report on the Bill on�24 February...

AML penalty moratorium to end

Posted on February 18, 2010
The�relief granted for AML/CTF civil penalty breaches of�the ongoing customer due diligence requirements and reporting of suspicious matters,�threshold transactions�and general reporting provisions�during the transition period under the Policy (Civil Penalty Orders) Principles 2006 will end on 11 March 2010...

Insurance regulatory update

Posted on February 17, 2010
The Assistant Treasurer has given a regulatory update to the Insurance Council. The update highlights the implications of the 2010 Integenerational Report, the Australian Financial Centre Forum and the Independent Tax Review for the insurance industry.

Government proposes further regulatory reforms

Posted on February 15, 2010
The Government has released its Response to the OECD Report ? Towards a Seamless National Economy, 2009 Review of Regulatory Reform: Australia . The Australian Government ’s response includes: ?further improving the Australian Government?s engagement with business to identify regulatory reform opportunities and concerns through establishing a formal consultation forum with business and using web 2...

Superannuation clearing house

Posted on February 13, 2010
The Government�has introduced the Tax Laws Amendment (2010 Measures No.1) Bill�into Parliament�to provide the legislative framework for its optional superannuation clearing house service for small business. The amendments�allow employers to meet their obligation to promptly remit superannuation amounts deducted from employees’ wages by paying them to the approved clearing house...

Reform of supervision of Australia?s financial markets

Posted on February 13, 2010
The Government has introduced legislation into Parliament that will reform the way financial markets in Australia are supervised. The Corporations Amendment (Financial Market Supervision) Bill 2010 contains three key measures: ?The Bill removes the obligation on Australian market licensees to supervise their markets...

Updated guidance from Takeovers Panel

Posted on February 13, 2010
Australia’s Takeovers Panel has released the following updated Guidance Notes: Guidance Note 7: Lock-Up Devices Guidance Note 12: Frustrating Action Guidance Note 14: Funding Arrangements Guidance Note 17: Rights Issues Copies are available at www...

Bills update

Posted on February 11, 2010
Although a number of new Bills have been introduced into Commonwealth Parliament this week we cannot link to them as the Australian Parliament House Bills site is the subject of a denial of service attack. As soon as access is available we will provide our usual reports...

ASIC guidance on disclosure of credit ratings in Australia

Posted on February 11, 2010
ASIC has released an information sheet clarifying how credit ratings issued by licensed credit rating agencies (CRAs) may be disclosed in Australia. Information Sheet 99 Disclosure of credit ratings in Australia (INFO 99) explains the circumstances in which a person may and may not disclose a credit rating in a retail disclosure document or PDS and [...

Illegal early release of superannuation benefits

Posted on February 07, 2010
APRA has written to the trustees of APRA Regulated Superannuation Funds expressing concern about�the illegal early release (IER) of superannuation benefits�involving transfers and rollovers into self-managed super funds (SMSFs) and to provide guidance on additional processes that trustees should consider implementing (see letter here)...

ASIC relief applications report

Posted on February 07, 2010
ASIC has released a report�, Overview of decisions on relief applications (April 2009 to July 2009) (REP 184 ) which provides an overview of a range of the applications where ASIC has considered, exercised, or refused to exercise, its exemption and modification powers from the financial reporting, managed investment, takeovers, fundraising and financial services provisions [...

Australia?s foreign investment law amended - backwards

Posted on February 07, 2010
Last week the Australian Senate passed a new law to take effect on 12 February: 12 February 2009, that is. The new law amends with retrospective effect Australia?s foreign investment legislation, the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975 (Cth) (FATA)...

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