By Daniel Knight and Simon Kiburg
ASIC have announced the first enforcement action it has taken in relation to the Design and Distribution Obligations (DDO), which were introduced late last year. The enforcement action shows that, as described by ASIC deputy chair Karen Chester, “ASIC’s focus has now shifted to compliance. Industry has had sufficient time to bed down its implementation of the DDO regime.“
Read MoreBy Jim Bulling and Hugo Chow
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has released its final revisions to Prudential Standard SPS 530 Investment Governance (SPS 530).
The more significant amendments are in relation to valuation governance, proposed guidance for environmental, social and governance (ESG) risk management and some new issues for stress testing programs.
Read MoreBy: Jon-Luc Dupuy and Keri Riemer
On 13 July 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) proposed new amendments to Rule 14a-8 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Shareholder Proposal Rule”).
Read MoreBy: Jon-Luc Dupuy and Keri Riemer
Update: On 28 July, 2022, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable and the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce & Industry sued the SEC, claiming that it did not follow proper procedures under the Administrative Procedure Act or provide adequate justification for its decision to repeal the exemption conditions described below.
On 13 July 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) repealed certain aspects of its 2020 reforms for proxy voting advice businesses (“PVABs”).
Read MoreBy Daniel Knight and Kithmin Ranamukhaarachchi
In the wake of the drawn out cryptocurrency market downturn, increased regulation of the sector seems inevitable. With nearly one million Australians transacting in cryptocurrencies last year, there have been widespread calls to enact additional protections for retail investors.
Read MoreBy: Kai Zhang
In an 8 June 2022 policy statement, the UK Government proposes a specific regime for supervising “critical” service providers to the financial services industry. This is to address concentration risk as many regulated firms rely on a few large service providers whose failure could potentially threaten the stability of, or confidence in, the UK’s financial system. The Government observes that in 2020 over 65% of UK regulated firms used the same four cloud providers for cloud infrastructure services.
Read MoreBy: Stacy L. Fuller, Clifford C. Histed, Cheryl L. Isaac, Richard F. Kerr, Keri E. Riemer, and Peter J. Shea
On Thursday, Grayscale Investments, LLC (Grayscale) filed suit against the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) in the D.C. Circuit asking the court to reconsider the agency’s rejection of listing a spot Bitcoin ETP on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). In its appeal, Grayscale argued that the SEC’s ruling regarding its spot Bitcoin ETP was “arbitrary and capricious,” because it disregarded facts about the ETP and erroneously determined that listing the ETP would be in contravention of NYSE’s duties under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Read MoreBy Daniel Knight and Alex Morrison
The Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones, has said that the Government intends to regulate Buy Now Pay Later Products (BNPL Products) and stop the “argument about whether [they’re] credit or not”.
Read MoreBy Kane Barnett and Bernard Sia
ASIC has published Information Sheet 272 (INFO 272) and Report 728 (REP 728) on the eve of the corporate collective investment vehicle’s (CCIV) commencement.
With the commencement date for CCIVs being 1 July 2022, today ASIC released 7 regulatory guides relating to the registration and licensing requirements for CCIVs. We outline the key features of CCIVs in our previous update. INFO 272 provides much needed clarity on how both the CCIV itself and its initial sub-funds are to be registered.
Read MoreBy Jim Bulling and Alex Morrison
ASIC has released Information Sheet 271 (INFO 271) to assist responsible entities of managed funds, corporate directors of CCIVs and trustees of registerable superannuation funds (Product Issuers) in avoiding ‘greenwashing’ when offering sustainability-related products (Products). INFO 271 describes greenwashing and provides a comprehensive overview of the current regulatory setting for communications about sustainability–related products.
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