 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Australian Regulatory Compliance Review
Australian Technology and IP Business
Credit Union and Mutual Law
National Consumer Credit Reform
Personal Property Securities Australia
Longview Business Insights
Australian Private Health Insurers
Wills, Trusts, Super
Mutuals Resource Centre
Commonwealth legislation
Corporate Governance
Not-for-Profit links
Regulator Links
The Corporations Amendment (Sons of Gwalia) Bill 2010 and the Corporations Amendments (No. 1) Bill 2010 (dealing with unsolicited off-market share offers) have been reintroduced into Parliament.
See our original notes here and here.
Print This Post
Product Safety Australia has provided a useful summary of the product safety laws changes to be implemented by the Australian Consumer Law on 1 January 2011 (here).
New Consumer Product Safety Guidelines have been released for comment.
Also from 1 January 2011 a supplier will be obliged to report an incident (whether this occurs in Australia or overseas) where a person has suffered death or serious injury or illness which was associated with a consumer good (or a product related to a service) the supplier has supplied. The supplier must give a notice of this to the Commonwealth Minister within two days.
The draft Mandatory Reporting Guidelines are open for comment until 20 October.
Print This Post
Commonwealth Parliament resumes on 28 September.
The final Ministry details are here.
The initial legislative program will be the re-introduction of last session’s lapsed Bills (see list here).
House of Representatives draft legislative program.
Senate draft legislative program
Commonwealth Solicitor-General’s advice on the Office of Speaker
Print This Post
Treasury has released a draft of the Competition and Consumer (Australian Consumer Law) Amendment Regulations 2010 for consultation. The ACL is scheduled to commence as a law of the Commonwealth and each state and territory on 1 January 2011.
The proposed regulations cover matters such as:
A new website about the Australian Consumer Law has been set up by the Government at www.consumerlaw.gov.au.
Print This Post
The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Rules Amendment Instrument 2010 (No.2) amends the AML/CTF Rules Instrument 2007 (No. 1). by inserting:
Print This Post
On 12 May 2010, litigation funder, IMF (Australia) Ltd (through its subsidiary Financial Redress Pty Ltd) announced that it proposed to commence class actions against 12 domestic and international banks on behalf of account holders who had been charged exception fees.
IMF has now announced the commencement of the first of the bank fees class actions against the Australian and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (“ANZ”). The action has been filed in the Federal Court in Victoria.
While ANZ is first cab off the rank, IMF has stated that it is expected further cases against a number of the 11 remaining banks will be brought in the coming months.
What are the account holders claiming?
The account holders are claiming that exception fees are illegal because the fees represent a penalty rather than a pre-estimate of the bank’s damages. The exception fees charged by ANZ to customers consist of honour and dishonour fees on bank accounts, and over limit and late payments fees on credit cards.
It is uncertain whether the plaintiffs will succeed on this basis, which is likely to be hotly contested by the ANZ. A similar case in the UK held that there was no breach of the contract by the customer. Last year Langes+ successfully defended a case brought by an account holder against a financial institution based on the same legal principle and in that case, the court rejected the contention that the fee amounted to a penalty.
The plaintiffs are also claiming that the ANZ’s conduct was unconscionable or unfair within the meaning of the ASIC, Trade Practices and Fair Trading Acts. In addition, the plaintiffs will argue that the fees charged were unjust within the meaning of the Consumer Credit Code.
(more…)
Print This Post
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has written to all Locally Incorporated General Insurers and Authorised Non-Operating Holding Companies under the Insurance Act 1973 in relation to the announcement by the Group of Governors and Heads of Supervision (GHOS), the oversight body of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, of a substantial strengthening of existing capital requirements for banking institutions.
APRA advises that it is likely that APRA will continue its policy of equivalent capital definitions between the ADI and insurance sectors, including any further reforms agreed by the Basel Committee as part of its review.
Print This Post
If a business is operating overseas there is a risk the staff could be involved in bribery and foreign corruption (as evidenced recently by the Stern Hu case in China).
The Wall Street Journal has commenced a blog called Corruption Currents which tracks news about money laundering, bribery, terrorism finance and sanctions. This is worth following.
Print This Post
The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) has released the following revised Implementation Plans for the National Partnership Agreement to Deliver a Seamless National Economy in response to recommendations from the COAG Reform Council:
The updated plans deal with a range of industries and sectors.
In respect of consumer credit it calls for the Commonwealth to develop and enact legislation for a national framework for regulation of consumer credit in line with part one of phase two of the implementation plan relating to the regulation of consumer credit (including any provisions that may be determined to be necessary for, regulation of reverse mortgages, regulation of credit for personal use and peer to peer lending, licensing requirements for debt collectors, regulation of credit card lending, credit cards and store credit, extension of unjust conduct provisions to credit service providers, enhancements to the National Credit Code and to enhance disclosure requirements for consumer leases and linked credit providers) by June 2011.
It calls the Commonwealth to develop and enact legislation for a national framework for regulation of consumer credit in line with part two of phase two of the implementation plan, relating to the regulation of consumer credit (including any provisions that may be determined to be necessary to regulate predatory, fringe and high cost lending, post-entry conduct by credit providers, credit advertising directed at vulnerable consumers, mandatory comparison rates, small business lending and issues specific to Islamic Finance) by June 2012.
Print This Post
ASIC has released a consultation paper (CP 138) seeking public comment on dispute resolution arrangements required of trustee companies providing traditional services, like preparing wills.
Under the Corporations Act 2001, trustee companies as Australian financial services (AFS) licensees, must have an internal dispute resolution (IDR) system for handling client complaints and be a member of an ASIC-approved external dispute resolution (EDR) scheme from 1 May 2011.
Some of the key proposals on which ASIC is consulting include:
UPDATE: ASIC has also released Consultation Paper 139 setting out how it proposes to administer the compensation requirements for trustee companies providing traditional services to retail clients.
Print This Post
