On Friday 23 October 2020, ASIC made a product intervention order imposing conditions on the issue and distribution of contracts for difference (CFDs) to retail clients. ASIC’s order strengthens consumer protections by reducing CFD leverage available to retail clients and by targeting CFD product features and sales practices that amplify retail clients’ CFD losses. It […]
ASIC has modified the Corporations Act to prevent stub equity offers of scrip in a proprietary company being made to large numbers of retail target holders in takeover bids and schemes of arrangement. The modification follows ASIC consultation on proposals to address concerns with offers of stub equity to retail investors in control transactions (19-127MR). […]
A recent ASIC surveillance has found that fund managers must do more to ensure their products are ‘true to label’ – that the product name aligns with the underlying assets. ASIC undertook a targeted surveillance of 37 managed funds operated by 20 responsible entities that collectively hold approximately $21 billion in assets. This followed ASIC […]
On Thursday 30 July 2020, ASIC released updated requirements for how financial firms deal with consumer and small business complaints – under their Internal Dispute Resolution (IDR) procedures. ‘Complaints handling is the first step in the dispute resolution framework and plays a critical role for firms to restore consumer trust when things have gone wrong. […]
On Friday, 24 July 2020, ASIC released minor amendments to the fees and cost disclosure regime for issuers of superannuation and managed investment products. A major update of Regulatory Guide 97 Disclosing Fees and Costs in PDSs and Periodic Statements (RG 97) and the associated legislative instrument were released in November 2019. ASIC has slightly amended RG 97 […]
ASIC has released Consultation Paper 330 (CP 330) on the proposed use of its product intervention power to address significant detriment it has identified in the continuing credit industry. This proposed intervention follows the product intervention order that ASIC made in September 2019, which banned the provision of a class of financial products, namely short term credit […]
On 7 July 2020, ASIC issued a temporary no-action position for Australian financial services (AFS) licensees in relation to potential breaches of the financial resource requirements that arise from recent changes to the accounting treatment of lease assets. The no-action position will apply until further notice. AFS licensees are required to maintain adequate resources, including […]
ASIC has commenced civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia against Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and CBA’s subsidiary, Colonial First State Investments Limited (CFSIL) in relation to alleged conflicted remuneration paid by CFSIL to CBA between 1 July 2013 and 30 June 2019. ASIC alleges that more than $22 million in conflicted […]
On 12 June 2020 ASIC published its draft Cost Recovery Implementation Statement (CRIS) 2019-2020. The CRIS details ASIC’s actual regulatory costs for 2018-2019 and provides an estimate of costs for 2019-2020. The estimated costs are published to give industry an indication of what levy costs to expect. They are a guide only. This CRIS was […]
On 12 June 2020 ASIC registered an amending instrument to specify an end date for three COVID-19 related instruments. The ASIC Corporations (Amendment) Instrument 2020/565 makes the following amendments: The earlier amendment to the ASIC Corporations (Share and Interest Purchase Plans) Instrument 2019/547 will be repealed on 2 October 2020 (six months after the amendment commenced). The ASIC […]