Minter Ellison's popular report on the fundamentals of doing business in Australia.
Our team has a deep understanding of the financial services regulatory environment and is an active participant through involvement in industry working groups. We manage regulatory issues relating to investments and fund operations including Australian foreign investment regulations and financial services regulations in Australia and abroad. We have advised and assisted a large number of financial services clients with their licensing requirements. Our financial services team includes dedicated specialists in the regulation of the industry. Our expertise stems from dealing with complex issues across the sector from major financial institutions to specialist service providers, as well as active participation in industry forums. We are experienced in the establishment, licensing, governance and operation of fund managers and responsible entities, platform operators, superannuation trustees and funds, authorised deposit taking institutions (ADIs), insurance companies, reinsurers and their holding companies, and financial planning firms, brokers and agents in Australia. We specialise in transactions affecting the ownership and control of ADI's, insurers, wealth managers and their holding companies, with particular expertise in demutualisation of credit unions, building societies and friendly societies. We are a leading adviser on the establishment and operation of managed funds, hedge funds, exchange traded funds and prime broker arrangements and all aspects of obtaining and maintaining Australian Financial Services Licences. Minter Ellison has a strong focus on regulatory compliance and change management issues for its clients. We are unique in our develop of practical tools to help our clients manage their regulatory burdens through the development of licensing toolkits, the widely used Disclosure Toolkits and our specialised publications such as Integrated FSR and Integrated AML. Our team maintains a close connection with regulatory developments affecting the industry and is recognised as a leading contributor on many areas of reform through active participating in industry working groups, making submissions on key areas of concern to the Government and regular dealings with APRA, ASIC, AUSTRAC, Treasury, FIRB and other regulators.
The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services (PJC) released its report on the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) on 29 February 2012 confirming that the 'vast majority' of FOFA provisions should commence on 1 July 2012. The PJC does, however, embrace ASIC's proposal to adopt a facilitative approach to enforcement during the first 12 months, but only where breaches are inadvertent and the result of systems issues. It also embraced the view that ASIC adopt a facilitative approach to enforcement during the first 12 months, demonstrating a measure of accommodation to industry participants where breaches are inadvertent and the result of systems issues. We discuss the key PJC recommendations and summarise the Coalition recommendations in this Alert.
On Tuesday, 29 November 2011, as part of its Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook 2011-12, the Federal Government announced a package of changes intended to raise A$11.5 billion in new revenue and savings.
On 10 November 2011, ASIC issued Regulatory Guide 228: Prospectuses: Effective disclosure for retail investors (RG 228) to addresses previous issues with prospectus disclosure, especially the need to provide retail investors with relevant information in a form that can be readily understood. This Alert highlights the key elements of RG 228.
Minter Ellison has made a submission to Treasury on the Exposure Draft - Corporations Amendment (Future of Financial Advice) Bill 2011. The submission provides comments on issues such as the conflicted remuneration prohibition, anti-avoidance, on-going fee arrangements and grandfathering.
On 13 October 2011, The Australian Government tabled part of the first tranche of the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) legislation in the House of Representatives. A number of changes have been made to the Exposure Draft which was released on 29 August 2011, including the removal of the best interests duty provisions. A further draft of these provisions is expected to be released for public consultation in the near future.
On Thursday 6 October the Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee released its highly anticipated report on the credit reporting provisions of the Exposure Draft of the Australian Privacy Amendment Legislation. The report makes 30 recommendations, many of which are quite significant, in response to numerous submissions and particularly on five key matters: simplification and clarification of language and definitions, the treatments of serious credit infringements, identity theft, the use of hardship flags and complaints handling.
On Wednesday 28 September, the federal government released the second tranche of draft legislation (including an Explanatory Memorandum) designed to give effect to its Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) reforms. The draft Bill addresses conflicted remuneration (including product commissions, volume payments and 'soft dollar' payments). Surprisingly, long-awaited provisions dealing with the 'grandfathering' of existing commission arrangements have been left out of the draft legislation. In this Alert, we will briefly consider the main provisions of the draft Bill, and what their impact is likely to be. The deadline for submissions to Treasury on the draft Bill is 19 October 2011.
Yesterday, the Australian Government released its Stronger Super Information Package. The Assistant Treasurer, The Hon Bill Shorten MP stated that he expects the Stronger Super legislation to be released in tranches over the next 9 months, with consultation to be undertaken on each tranche. The first tranche dealing with MySuper is expected to be released within a month.
Minter Ellison has made a submission to Treasury on the likely impacts of key provisions of the Draft Corporations Amendment (Future of Financial Advice) Bill 2011.