By: Jim Bulling, Simon Kiburg and Eddie Frost
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has proposed reforms to strengthen core prudential standards and guidance on governance, currently set out in SPS 510 Governance, SPS 520 Fit and Proper, and SPS 521 Conflicts of Interest.
Read MoreBy: Shane Geraghty, Dr. Ulrike Elteste, and Ruth Hennessy
EU national supervisory authorities will collect the Register of Information (ROI) pursuant to the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) from in scope financial entities in April 2025, with the reference date set as 31 March 2025. ROIs are reports by in-scope EU financial entities on all contractual arrangements on the use of information and communication technology (ICT) services provided by ICT third-party service providers. The financial entity must differentiate between providers who are not critical and providers who are considered critical and important.
Read MoreBy: Shane Geraghty, Hazel Doyle, and Gayle Bowen
On 14 February 2025, the EU’s securities and markets regulator, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), launched a Common Supervisory Action (CSA) with EU Member State National Competent Authorities (NCAs), in relation to compliance and internal audit functions of UCITS management companies and Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFMs) across the EU.
Read MoreBy: Kane Barnett and Bernard Sia
ASIC has accepted a court enforceable undertaking (CEU) from Private Wealth Pty Ltd (Sanlam) after it admitted that it failed to discharge its general Australian financial services (AFS) licensing obligations in connection with its authorised representatives.
Read MoreBy: Claudine Salameh and Tamsyn Sharpe
Financial firms are required to maintain clear internal dispute resolution (IDR) processes to allow customers to seek redress where they are dissatisfied with the firm’s products or services. Access to fair, timely and effective IDR is an important tenet of consumer protection. Financial firms are required to acknowledge the receipt of a customer’s complaint within 24 hours and resolve standard complaints within 30 days.
Read MoreBy: Daniel Knight, Ben Kneebush and Madison Jeffreys
As Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to be adopted and used by Australian Financial Services (AFS) licensees broadly, it has become increasingly evident that many licensees’ deployment of AI falls short of their existing regulatory obligations and emerging best practices.
Read MoreBy: Jim Bulling, Simon Kiburg and Alex Parker
When assessing how to comply with the new reporting obligations, reporting entities should recognise the differences in the enforcement approach that ASIC will take in relation to mandatory climate reporting compared with the approach adopted by it in relation to Greenwashing.
Read MoreBy: Cheryl L. Isaac, Clifford C. Histed, and Benjamin C. Skillin
On 2 October 2024, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced multiple actions related to fraud in the voluntary carbon credit (VCC) market, just over one year after establishing the Environmental Fraud Task Force. Specifically, the CFTC filed a complaint in federal court against the former CEO of a carbon credit project developer and, on the same day, settled charges against CQC Impact Investors LLC (CQC) and its former COO, all related to a deceptive scheme purportedly intended to reduce carbon emissions.
Read MoreBy: C. Todd Gibson, Robert H. McCarthy Jr., and Jamie M. Robinson
The time has come to finalize those end-of-year checklists and for anyone with US entities, foreign entities doing business in the United States, or for those who are planning to form or register entities to do business in the United States, the United States Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) should be at the top of the list. This includes investment advisers and funds that they manage.
Read MoreBy: Pablo Man and Benjamin Skillin
On 2 October 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced settled charges against one of the largest carbon credit project developers (the Developer), for fraudulently altering data concerning its business and making material misrepresentations in the offering of equity to institutional investors in the United States. The SEC’s order found that the Developer violated Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder.
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