Governance News 27 November 2019

45 mins  26.11.2019 Mark Standen, Siobhan Doherty, Kate Hilder
Governance News provides a weekly wrap up of key governance, risk and regulatory developments in Australia and overseas with a strong financial services focus.  This week's issue features coverage of the AUSTRAC AML/CTF allegations against Westpac and the Federal Court's decision in the first case to directly on a Financial Services Royal Commission case study: Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Dover Financial Advisers Pty Ltd [2019] FCA 1932.

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Past issues are available

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https://www.minterellison.com/articles/governance-news-27-november-2019

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We provide weekly summaries of key regulatory and governance developments in Australia and overseas.

Diversity Navigation Show below Hide below

  • Some way to go?  The latest Hampton-Alexander review of FTSE women leaders released
  • In Brief | The Financial Times and Statista have released a report — Diversity Leaders 2020 — ranking 700 businesses from 10 European countries on how well their employees perceive their approaches to equality and inclusion to be.  The top three companies were: Booking.com (Netherlands); Colgate Palmolive (Switzerland); and Wilmott Dixon (UK)

Meetings and Proxy Advisers Navigation Show below Hide below

  • Calls for more regulation of proxy advisers in Australia are getting louder?

Regulators Navigation Show below Hide below

APRA has no plans to send observers to board meetings? 

Institutional shareholders and stewardship Navigation Show below Hide below

  • Growing in influence: Institutional investors hold an increasingly large share of the world's listed companies according to an OECD report

Financial Services Navigation Show below Hide below

  • Top Story | Decision in Financial Services Royal Commission case study: ASIC won its case against Dover Financial Advisers Pty Ltd and Dover's sole director 
  • Top Story | AUSTRAC has launched civil proceedings against Westpac alleging AML/CTF contraventions 
  • Auditor finds Afterpay is a 'low risk business': Afterpay has released the final report form an external auditor into its compliance with AML/CTF laws
  • NAB has agreed to pay $49.5m to settle a class action commenced in September 2018 against NAB and MLC Ltd in the Federal Court 
  • The ACCC has authorised changes to the 2019 Code of Banking Practice implementing the ABA's response to the Financial Services Royal Commission recommendations
  • Consumer group Choice has made a complaint to ASIC alleging that a mortgage broker may be misleading home loan customers 
  • 20,000 people have signed a petition calling on the government to urgently implement UCT reforms
  • APRA is consulting on proposed changes to prudential standard governing insurance in superannuation
  • In Brief | The PRA has imposed a combined financial penalty on Citigroup Global Markets Limited (CGML), Citibank NA. London branch (CBNA London) and Citibank Europe Plc UK branch (CEP UK) of £43.9 million for 'failings in relation to their internal controls and governance arrangements' underpinning compliance with PRA regulatory reporting requirements.  The PRA notes that as Citi agreed to resolve the matter, a 30% reduction in the fine imposed by the PRA was applied. Without this discount, the fine imposed by the PRA would have been £62,700,000
  • In Brief | Data sharing is key to addressing the risk of child exploitation: The AFR reports that Singapore based not-for-profit International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children, is due to hold its regular meeting with the major banks, major remittance providers (Western Union, MoneyGram and WorldRemit), the eSafety Commissioner, the NSW, Victorian and Queensland police forces, the Australian Institute of Criminology, AUSTRAC and the Federal Police to formulate plans for the better sharing of data.  This is considered key to improving the quality of intelligence and therefore to tackling child exploitation in Asia 
  • In Brief | As part of the government's Retirement Income Review, Treasury has released a consultation paper setting out a number of questions it would like submissions to address.  The deadline for submissions is 3 February 2020.  The panel's first report is due by June 2020
  • In Brief | Transcripts of the recent parliamentary hearings on the superannuation sector, at which a number of funds and peak bodies were asked questions concerning their response to the Financial Services Royal Commission recommendations, opinion on APRA's heatmaps, approach to consolidating duplicate accounts and approach to investment decision making (among other issues) have been released

Accounting and audit Navigation Show below Hide below

  • Proactively lifting standards? The Australian reports that PwC will establish an external board to review the quality of its audit practice and change the way the performance of audit partners is assessed
  • In Brief | The transcript of ASIC's appearance before the first parliamentary hearing into the regulation of the audit sector has been released.  The next hearing is scheduled for 29 November 

Risk management Navigation Show below Hide below

  • The UK Institute of Directors has released a corporate governance manifesto putting forward ten policy to lift governance standards 
  • Trends in managing cybersecurity risk: The structure and composition of S&P 100 boards is changing in response to increasing concern and acceptance of the threat cybersecurity incidents pose to business

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https://www.minterellison.com/articles/governance-news-27-november-2019

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