Financial Services and Credit Quarterly Update - January 2018

Welcome to 2018.2017 ended with a bang, in the form of a Royal Commission into misconduct in the banking, superannuation and financial services industries announced on 30 November.

You’ll find an overview of the Royal Commission and other developments in the last quarter of 2017 in our latest Financial Services and Credit Quarterly Update. You can download it here.

Please feel free to forward this message or the Update to your colleagues if it may be of interest.

Beyond the Royal Commission, there are plenty of other developments to watch out for in 2018. These include a number of reforms scheduled to commence on 1 July:

• the commencement of the Bank Executive Accountability Regime (BEAR);

• the new EDR scheme, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority; and

• the phasing in of mandatory comprehensive credit reporting.

Other important changes on the way include:

• amendments to the AML/CTF legislation;

• design and distribution obligations and product intervention powers;

• progress towards “open banking”;

• whistleblower reforms;

• reforms aimed at accountability of superannuation funds; and

• deferred prosecution agreements for serious corporate crime.

We can also expect to see proposed enhancements to ASIC’s enforcement powers arising out of the Treasury review, as well as activity by the ACCC’s Financial Services Unit.Look out for our upcoming seminars to help get you ready for these changes.It’s going to be a busy year. We’ll keep you posted on these issues in the Update, together with special features on individual issues of importance.

Kathleen Harris and Patrick Dwyer

Legal Directors