ASIC

Financial planning

Advisers must start to understand DDO requirements

Prior to now, advisers were not in a position to deal with understanding the design and distribution obligations but now is the time given the raft of information coming ...

Financial planning

ASIC releases DDO FAQ for advisers and licensees

With the design and distribution obligation regime set to begin in less than three weeks, the corporate regulator has released guidance on what is most important for fina...

Policy & Regulation

Registration revoked for Halifax auditor

Former Halifax Investment Services lead auditor, Robert James Evett, has been found to not be a fit and proper person to remain registered as an auditor following his con...

Financial planning

Regulation turning advisers into ‘admin assistants’

Mounting regulation is turning advisers into “admin assistants with Government records” and Government intervention is needed to maintain limited licensees in the industr...

Superannuation

Criminal charges brought against ME Bank

The corporate regulator has alleged misconduct against the bank’s home loan clients while it was still under ownership of the industry superannuation funds....

Financial planning

DDO changes to remove nil complaint requirement

The Government is seeking to make amendments to the design and distribution obligation regime including removing the requirement for advisers and licensees to report whet...

Financial planning

Litigation still on the cards for ASIC

The corporate watchdog’s chair, Joe Longo, has no plans to let up on the body’s litigation commitment despite pulling back on the public emphasis his predecessor had plac...

Policy & Regulation

ASIC chair probed on governance review of regulator

The corporate regulator’s new chair, Joe Longo, believes that reading the publicly available report of the regulator’s governance practices is sufficient and has not aske...

Financial planning

Group faces 72 criminal offences after alleged phoenix activity

Four associates and a lawyer have been charged with criminal offences after Members Alliance and Benchmark groups collapsed with the corporate regulator alleging the grou...

People & Products

Govt appoints inaugural FRAA board

Former Macquarie Group chief executive Nicholas Moore will be chair of the authority that will oversee the corporate and prudential regulators....

Financial planning

Market downturn could ‘burn’ first-time investors

While it is great to see retail investors investing in the stockmarket for the first time, a sharp market downturn could put them off the market for good, warns Airlie....

Policy & Regulation

Advice makes 20% of ASIC 1H enforcement outcomes

None of the outcomes resulted in criminal proceedings, and there is a similar percentage of ongoing cases by the corporate regulator....

Superannuation

CFSIL liable for misleading super members

The Federal Court has found that it made false or misleading representations to members to avoid them moving to the MySuper product....

Policy & Regulation

Bulk upload reports for breach reporting allowed

To reduce the reporting burden, the corporate regulator is allowing licensees to batch upload reports that derive from a single root cause as part of the new breach repor...

Policy & Regulation

Why penalties can’t fund the ASIC levy

If the corporate regulator had funds awarded by penalties put into the financial advice levy it could look like a new revenue stream aimed at players with deep pockets....