Australian Update - Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Enforcement Priorities for 2024-2025 - The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has announced its enforcement and compliance priorities for...more
4/26/2024
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Australia welcomes new business and foreign investment by providing a strong economy, a stable political environment and a skilled and talented workforce. Our comprehensive guide to Doing Business in Australia has been...more
4/19/2024
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Australian Update - Australian Securities and Investments Commission Continues Greenwashing Enforcement Efforts - On 28 February 2024, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) reported that an outsourced...more
4/2/2024
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Australian Update - Draft Legislation – Climate-Related Financial Disclosures The Australian Government has released Treasury Laws Amendment Bill 2024: Climate-related financial disclosure, which is draft legislation...more
3/1/2024
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Overview - Background - The Australian Government recently released an exposure draft of the legislation to implement mandatory climate-related financial disclosures (Draft Legislation). This follows the release of draft...more
2/20/2024
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As many global financial services organisations know, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) during 2020 finalised its Regulatory Guidance for Foreign Financial Services Providers (FFSPs) to transition to...more
UPDATE ON ASIC FOREIGN AFSL REGIME - It has now been over five months since the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) commenced its foreign Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) regime....more
Since our last update in late June, governments and regulators have been continuing to address COVID-19 issues with new updates released regularly. Notably, regulators have also extended some temporary measures given the...more
There are many government and regulator initiatives aimed at addressing COVID-19 issues and new responses emerge on a daily basis. We have summarised those announcements, relevant to the superannuation and funds management...more
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) released on 10 March 2020 its finalised Regulatory Guide 176 for Foreign Financial Services Providers (FFSPs).
There are some differences in the final RG 176...more
On 23 October 2019, the Senate Committee on Financial Technology and Regulatory Technology (Committee) published an issues paper regarding its comprehensive inquiry into fintechs and regtechs in Australia....more
Welcome to the first of a regular series of K&L Gates Legal Insights addressing the new enforcement environment in financial services.
The Hayne Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial...more
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) released on 3 July 2019 Consultation Paper 315: Foreign financial services providers (CP 315) which seeks feedback on the proposed introduction of a modified...more
On 30 May 2019, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) updated its Information Sheet 225 which sets out guidance for entities that are looking to raise funds through initial coin offerings (ICOs) or are...more
In December 2018, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) settled an enforcement action with Wealthfront, one of the industry’s leading robo advisors....more
On 18 March 2019, the Federal Australian Government announced its plan to establish the national blockchain roadmap (Roadmap) which intends to focus developing regulation, skills and capacity building, innovation, investment...more
Following on from the Senate Hearings in January 2019, the Economic References Committee (Committee) published its Report on credit and financial services targeted at Australians at risk of financial hardship....more
The Final Report of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry was released on 4 February 2019. In addressing the findings from hearings into the insurance industry,...more
The Final Report from the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry was published early last week. In addressing the findings from hearings into the Financial Advice...more
On 22 January 2018, two of the largest ‘buy now, pay later’ businesses in Australia, Afterpay and Zip.co, appeared at a hearing before the Senate’s Economic References Committee.
During the Senate hearing, both Zip.co and...more
An Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) Report, "Sale of Direct Life Insurance" (Report), has exposed systemic issues within the life insurance industry. The findings include a number of dramatic case studies...more
Misaligned advisor interests. Consumer disengagement. Low financial literacy in the face of complex documents. These themes echo throughout the revised Treasury Laws Amendment (Design and Distribution Obligations and Product...more
There are good reasons to suspect that we may soon see increased enforcement action from the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) regulator, Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre...more
Late last year the Australian Government released a paper outlining a proposal to implement a range of design and distribution obligations on the issuers and distributors of financial products to retail clients. The proposed...more
Concerns have been raised by the Australian Government in recent times in relation to the effect of current remuneration structures in the mortgage broking market on the quality of consumer outcomes.
During 2016, the...more