Financial Firms Announce Crypto Initiatives, Stablecoin Growth Continues - A major U.S. crypto investment company recently announced the launch of its Avalanche Trust, which “offers investors the opportunity to gain...more
U.S. criminal law has a long reach outside the borders of the United States. Australian companies and individuals whose activities touch on the United States—even without having offices or any physical presence in the United...more
This edition of the Update covers: 1. Recent legal and regulatory developments, including the release of ASIC's immunity policy for market misconduct offences, a FATF consultation on proliferation of financial risk and...more
The Situation: After conducting a period of market surveillance, Australian Securities & Investments Commission ("ASIC") Commissioner Cathie Armour recently released a statement reiterating ASIC's expectation that disclosing...more
Australia's corporate regulator has released its Corporate Plan, which outlines its strategic litigation goals and governance initiatives over the next four years. On 31 August 2020, the Australian Securities and...more
The Situation: Following a boom in class actions backed by litigation funders, the Australian Federal Government has introduced new regulations which classify litigation funding schemes as "managed investment schemes" and...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
The Situation: The Australian Law Reform Commission ("ALRC") has released its much anticipated Discussion Paper on Australia's corporate criminal responsibility regime, which provides the ALRC's preliminary views in relation...more
The Situation: Directors and executives are largely responsible for the culture of companies, and regulators are seeking to hold them accountable for misconduct that can be traced to poor culture. The Key Message: Culture...more
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission ("ASIC") has recently released updates to its existing regulatory guidance on effective disclosure, to clarify its position on the disclosure of climate change-related...more
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission have signed an arrangement designed to support cross-border FinTech innovation through their respective FinTech initiatives,...more
The Situation: Many foreign financial services providers ("FFSPs") currently rely on one of two types of relief from broadly defined provisions of the Corporations Act 2001 that would otherwise require them to obtain and hold...more
The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission have signed an enhanced cooperation agreement on FinTech innovation. The new agreement supersedes the previous cooperation...more
The Government requested that the Supreme Court overturn U.S. v. Newman, the Second Circuit’s decision on tipping and the personal benefit test. Previously, the Second Circuit had declined a request to either rehear the case...more
The SEC brought another custody rule action this week – against the outside auditors alleging that one examination was insufficient and the others incomplete thereby causing the client to violate the surprise audit...more
The question of forum selection by the SEC was a key issue this week. While to date suits challenging the SEC’s right to bring an action as an administrative proceeding rather than in federal court have had little success –...more
The SEC filed one new action this week – an administrative proceeding involving the principal of an investment adviser and undisclosed conflicts of interest. The Commission also amended a complaint in an insider trading...more
There is no doubt that the Future of Financial Advice reforms (FOFA) will significantly transform the advice landscape, and there is debate around which sectors of the advice industry will be the winners, and how long the...more
The International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) has recently released its final report on "Suitability Requirements with respect to the Distribution of Complex Financial Products" (Report), which outlines the...more