February « 2010 « Australian Regulatory Compliance Review from Langes+ Lawyers

February 4, 2010

Access to company register reforms

The Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate law has announced the release of a proposals paper, Access to Company Registers and Related Issues.

The paper outlines four proposals which would amend the Corporations Act 2001 (Corporations Act). These proposals are to:

require a proper purpose for accessing a register to be demonstrated before a company is required to provide access;
set down a three-tiered fee structure for obtaining access to a register, with the fee chargeable to be based on the number of members a company has;
require a company to provide an electronic copy of its register in a format compatible with the requestor’s software; and
require a requestor who seeks access to a company’s register which is kept electronically to view that register on computer. (more…)

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Posted 4th February 2010 by David Jacobson in Corporate Governance, Corporations Act

February 2, 2010

CommSec gives undertaking for Spam Act breach

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has accepted an enforceable undertaking offered by Commonwealth Securities Limited (CommSec), following complaints that commercial electronic messages continued to be sent to customers after consent had been withdrawn.

The ACMA also identified that email campaigns conducted by CommSec in January, February and March 2009, did not provide an option to unsubscribe.

The Spam Act requires that all commercial electronic messages include some form of unsubscribe facility, and that when a person or business withdraws their consent, they receive no further messages from that provider.

In addition to reviewing its compliance systems, CommSec has undertaken to pay to the Commonwealth a financial component of $55,000. An implementation plan has been agreed with the ACMA which includes the appointment of an independent consultant to assess CommSec’s system reviews, quarterly audits on its email campaigns for 12 months and the introduction of an annual training program. CommSec will report regularly to the ACMA on its progress.

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Posted 2nd February 2010 by David Jacobson in Marketing

APRA guide on IT risks

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has published a prudential practice guide (PPG) on the management of security risk in information and information technology (IT) by institutions supervised by APRA.

The PPG provides guidance to senior management, risk management and IT security specialists on the importance of an overarching framework, systematic IT asset life-cycle management, effective monitoring processes and robust IT security reporting and assurance mechanisms.

It also contains a section on service provider management.

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Posted 2nd February 2010 by David Jacobson in Financial Services, Web/Tech

Margin lender licensing commences

ASIC has commenced receiving applications for an AFS licence, or a variation to an existing AFS licence, for margin lending.

Existing margin lenders and advisers on margin loans must apply to ASIC for an AFSL authorisation by 30 June 2010 if they intend to continue to provide a margin lending financial service after the application period closes.

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Posted 2nd February 2010 by David Jacobson in Corporations Act, Financial Services