Governance News 14 September 2022

40 minute read + (PDF Download) 14.09.2022 Mark Standen, Siobhan Doherty, Kate Hilder

This week's issue has a strong financial services focus and includes coverage of the legislation that will (if enacted) introduce the long-awaited Financial Accountability Regime (FAR), the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort (CSLR) and the government's response to the SACC review. We also provide a status update on implementation of the Hayne Recommendations. In addition, we include coverage of two sessions from the Governance Institute of Australia's National Forum including the regulatory session and more…

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What do future leaders look like? Insights from an expert panel

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Gun Safety: Credit card companies to adopt a measure enabling tracking of gun and ammunition sales

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In Brief | Following its Spring 2022 assessment, the FRC has added forty three new signatories to the UK Stewardship Code taking the total number of signatories to 236 (with assets under management of £40 trillion)

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Australia's climate Bills received Assent on 13 September
Harnessing technology to lessen the ESG reporting burden on companies and improve investor access to ESG data: SGX and MAS launch new ESG reporting platform
In Brief | Climate Action 100+ has published benchmark assessments for the 14 Australian companies in its focus group ahead of AGM season. In some cases, due to the timing of the release of some company's financial statements, the climate accounting and audit assessment is not included. This is planned to be included with the release of the updated benchmark assessments for the remaining 159 focus companies in mid-October
In Brief | Ahead of COP27, 532 institutional investors with US $39 trillion in assets under management have signed on to the 2022 Global Investor Statement to Governments on the Climate Crisis which urges governments to raise their climate ambition in line with the goal of limiting global temperature increases to 1.5°C
In Brief | NGFS has published a set of updated forward looking climate scenarios reflecting (among other updates) country-level climate commitments made at COP26. Though the updated scenarios do not account for the consequences of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the NGFS considers they 'remain informative about the current situation, illustrating the challenges as well as the feasibility and benefits from carrying on with the net zero transition'
In Brief | New report finds Australia's responsible investment market continues to grow: RIAA found the responsible investment market reached $1.5 trillion in assets under management or 43% of total professionally managed funds (up from $1.28 trillion in 2020)

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Priorities and challenges for the ACCC and ASIC: Key takeaways from the Governance Institute National Forum discussion
APRA has issued an information paper providing a high level overview of its multi-year program to modernise, digitise and simplify APRA's existing PDF-based 'regulatory architecture'

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Top Story | Status update: Tracking progress against each of the Hayne Commission's 76 recommendations
Top Story | Hayne implementation: Financial Accountability Regime: Bills (re)introduced
Roles and responsibilities under the proposed FAR: Treasury consults on draft rules
Hayne implementation: CSLR Bills (re)introduced
Implementing the recommendations of the SACCs review: Financial Sector Reform Bill 2022 introduced
YFYS implementation review: Consultation paper seeks feedback on any unintended consequences of implementation issues
Treatment of Faith-based Products under the performance test: Treasury is consulting on draft regulations
Crypto is not to be taxed as foreign currency: Draft Bill released for consultation
ASIC remakes class order on the financial requirements for retail OTC derivative issuers
Managed funds (voluntarily) amend their marketing following ASIC surveillance
DDO Implementation: ASIC places interim stop orders on two managed funds
Updated principles-based FPA Code and accompanying 'best practice standards' released
In Brief | Time to focus on prevention says BCCC: After three years, the number of reported breaches in the banking Code is still not trending down, in fact the BCCC's latest report flags that there was an overall 19% increase in reported breaches over the July to December 2021 period. The BCCC said that though banks' efforts to improve their ability to identify and address non-compliance is welcome, it expects that banks 'will soon move beyond' this to focus more strongly on breach prevention