Financial Services Articles

Today we continue to look at financial services compliance.“It’s not enough, is it… to have those policies and procedures in ...
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By Anne Wardell, Compliance Quarter.  Photo by Jefferson Santos on Unsplash The OAIC has published its first quarterly statistics report ...
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The Banking Executive and Accountability Regime (BEAR) was passed into law in February of this year. We have talked about ...
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ASIC has this week released updated guidance for Australian financial services (AFS) licensees that hold client money for trading in ...
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By Anne Wardell, Compliance Quarter.  The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) has released an Issues Paper for discussion on ...
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This week the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry (the Royal Commission), began round ...
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February Fintech Roundup: The Open Banking Review and Fintech lending to SMEs. In February we saw the release of two ...
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Restrictions on payday loans and rent-to-buy schemes? On the 26 February, legislation was introduced to the Commonwealth House of Representatives ...
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ASIC oversight of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA): Consultation Open - On March 5 the Australian Securities & Investments ...
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A couple of weeks ago the International Energy Agency (IEA) released a lengthy report (250 pages) on their review of ...
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In this article, we examine ACCC compliance and enforcement priorities for 2018, including energy and the consumer data right. By ...
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By Anne Wardell, Compliance Quarter.  Owners corporations must ensure that all windows fitted to common property, above the ground floor, ...
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In addition to our regular news updates and analysis, the regulatory energy experts at Compliance Quarter have been busy helping ...
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The Government recently released an exposure draft of a Bill (the draft Bill) capturing many of the recommendations of 2017’s ...
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Photo by Adam Birkett on Unsplash By Anne Wardell, Compliance Quarter.  The Electricity Supply (Safety and Network Management) Regulation 2014 requires all NSW electricity network ...
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The Government is currently seeking submissions on an exposure draft of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Taxation and Superannuation Guarantee Integrity ...
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NSW irrigators will soon be subject to a host of new water compliance reform obligations, due to a swift government ...
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On 21 December 2017, the Government began consultation on the exposure draft of a new law (the draft Bill) which ...
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Last time we talked about the Government’s introduction of design and distribution obligations for financial products in a draft Bill ...
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Photo by Jair Lázaro on Unsplash By Anne Wardell, Compliance Quarter.  The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has today released ...
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In this post on understanding GDPR, we'll look at the following: Data Disruption Regulation in the age of Data The ...
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On 26 November the Federal Government announced its intention to legislate a national Consumer Data Right next year, following the ...
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The Banking Executive Accountability Regime (BEAR) is shaping up to be the most significant piece of business-related legislation hitting this ...
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‘Smart contracts’ have not yet taken off as a common commercial tool in Australia. In light of this, consideration of ...
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On November 13, the Australian Transaction Reports & Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) commented on the civil proceedings that it successfully brought ...
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Last week we talked about the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal NSW (IPART) Review of Compliance and Enforcement Policy (read ...
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In the past, we have looked at some of the existing powers and proposed powers that the Australian Securities & ...
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On 19 October, the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) and New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority (FMA) “re-affirmed” a commitment ...
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On 11 October, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) jointly announced that 10 ...
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By Anne Wardell, Compliance Quarter.  On 6 November 2017 the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) released a revised Draft Retail Exempt ...
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The Australian Securities & Investments Commission ASIC Enforcement Review Taskforce (the taskforce) recently released a positions paper 'Strengthening Penalties for ...
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On Thursday, 26 October, the Annual Report of the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) was tabled in the House ...
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We have previously looked at the sweeping changes to privacy laws coming into effect in the EU. These laws will ...
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By Anne Wardell, Compliance Quarter.  The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal NSW (IPART) is currently undertaking a review of its ...
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Several months ago, we discussed the Government’s announced expansion of the FinTech regulatory sandbox (https://compliancequarter.com.au/regulatory-changes/). It was proposed then to ...
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The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) released its Annual Report last month. It summarises the work of the ...
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A few months ago, in The low-down on the retail client money reforms for OTC derivatives, we looked at client ...
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Last time in The Banking Executive Accountability Regime (BEAR) Exposure Draft - Part One we talked about the new role ...
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By Anne Wardell, Compliance Quarter The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) has released a consultation draft of proposed new AER Compliance ...
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In May we talked about the Government’s Budget commitment to a new Banking Executive Accountability Regime (BEAR) in Budget 2017 ...
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Today we are pleased to announce a number of updates to the Compliance HUB. The focus of our most recent ...
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By Anne Wardell, Compliance Quarter UPDATE: In the JJ Richards matter the Federal Court has declared by consent that eight of ...
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By Anne Wardell, Compliance Quarter The Australian Energy Market Operator has released Package 3 changes to amend a number of ...
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By Anne Wardell, Compliance Quarter The Australian Energy Market Commission has released a draft rule to support a competitive market ...
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On 31 July, the Prime Minister requested the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) to consider conducting a nation-wide compliance review (https://www.mdba.gov.au/media/mr/basin-wide-compliance-review) ...
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The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) is the proposed new dispute resolution body for the financial sector. Last week, the ...
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In May 2017, the Clean Energy Council (CEC) released a Briefing Paper, Charging Forward: Policy and regulatory reforms to unlock ...
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Today we look at proposed changes to regulatory obligations for those operating in the superannuation sector. Namely, the seven key ...
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On July 20, the Government announced that an independent review has been set up to consider the best process for ...
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There are some key definitions contained in the Energy Retail Law which need to be understood.  Chapter 10 of the ...
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The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has just announced that it is increasing the capital adequacy ratios for banks and ...
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Earlier this year, the Government’s cyber security advisor, Alastair MacGibbon, described a “prevailing ‘tick box’ compliance culture” for federal government ...
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The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) has just released a report (12 July) Securities & derivatives sector: money ...
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A key part of the Government’s Budget package last year was a reduction in company tax rates for small businesses ...
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Most businesses that facilitate the trading of assets or financial instruments (‘market venues’) are required to hold an Australian Market ...
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Last week, the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) announced that it is extending an existing form of regulatory relief ...
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In May, we discussed the Government’s announcement that there would be significant changes to Temporary Work (Skilled) (subclass 457) visas, ...
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In OTC derivatives trading in Australia – are you playing by the rules? we looked at how new regulatory requirements ...
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On 14 June 2017, the High Court of Australia delivered its decision in Air New Zealand Ltd v ACCC; Pt ...
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By Anne Wardell, Compliance Quarter Professor Ross Garnaut recently delivered a lecture to the Faculty of Business and Economics at ...
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By Anne Wardell, Compliance Quarter The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has obtained an extension of the timeframe for publication ...
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The Federal Government has recently issued a discussion paper (the paper) titled Tax Deductible Gift Recipient Reform Opportunities. The proposed ...
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In our earlier article, The Productivity Commission’s proposed comprehensive consumer right to data, we looked at the new consumer right ...
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Today’s article is our third piece on OTC derivatives regulation in Australia. In today’s piece, we take a look at ...
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Today, we continue our discussion about AFSL obligations looking at OTC electricity derivatives. By Dr. Drew Donnelly, Compliance Quarter. Last ...
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Yesterday we mentioned AFSL obligations in relation to OTC derivatives trading by electricity retailers who operate under an energy retail ...
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By Dr. Drew Donnelly, Compliance Quarter. Last month in Financial crime doesn’t pay – three ways in which wrongdoers may ...
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By Dr. Drew Donnelly, Compliance Quarter. In our last article on blockchain, Understanding smart contracts, we talked through an example ...
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By Dr Drew Donnelly, Compliance Quarter. Continuing in our series of posts on blockchain and related financial technology, today we ...
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By Dr Drew Donnelly, Compliance Quarter. Today, continuing in our series of articles concerning developments in the fintech regulatory space ...
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By Dr Drew Donnelly, Compliance Quarter. Last year, the Federal Government announced its commitment to Australia being a world-leader in ...
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By Dr Drew Donnelly, Compliance Quarter. On 13 June, The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and Australian Securities ...
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By Dr Drew Donnelly, Compliance Quarter. Over the last couple of weeks we have asked the question ‘Is your business ...
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By Dr Drew Donnelly, Compliance Quarter. The Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) has just announced that it has passed the ...
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By Dr Drew Donnelly, Compliance Quarter. We mentioned last time that the Government is consulting on some options for curbing ...
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On 7 June in Paris, 68 nations signed the Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base ...
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Last month, we discussed recent Senate committee proposals to strengthen the civil penalties regime under the Corporations Act 2001 for ...
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This is our second post on the Notifiable Data Breaches Scheme. Amendments made to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) this ...
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Last Friday the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) released draft resources to help businesses comply with the Notifiable ...
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As of 25 May 2018, the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will implement a new extra-territorial data protection ...
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Previously, we discussed some core areas where financial professionals need to think about their own compliance, including compliance with the ...
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Are you up-to-date with your obligations as a financial professional? Five quick questions We recently looked at some key regulatory ...
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In our last article, we talked about some general changes that the Government is making to the financial services industry ...
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Last week we talked about the Government’s new rules for temporary working visas. On 9 May, the release of Federal ...
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Are you in the hire or rental business? The law is about to change — and it’s good news On ...
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Last month the Government announced sweeping changes to the temporary work visa in Australia. This suite of changes is complex ...
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Located in Erina and Sydney NSW, with an exciting product that solves a significant problem for our customers, we are ...
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In this post we provide some of the background to the compliance portal, why we are doing what we are ...
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An effective corporate compliance program is essential to good governance and risk management. Many businesses have invested significantly in compliance ...
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