Australia

Conduct, Culture & Accountability

Australian Treasury Bans ‘Conflicted’ Commissions Paid on LICs

By Editors | 24/05/2020

Fund managers will be barred from paying fees to financial advisers and stockbrokers for selling listed investment companies and trusts.

Capital Adequacy

‘Now is the Time’ for Banks to Use Buffers: APRA, RBA

By Manesh Samtani | 21/05/2020

APRA’s Wayne Byres and the RBA’s Philip Lowe said buffers were built up to be used in times of stress, and lower capital ratios are both expected and appropriate.

Anti-Money Laundering

Westpac Removes EY as Auditor for Upcoming Risk Review – Report

By Editors | 20/05/2020

EY’s 2017 review of Westpac highlighted poor data quality, outdated infrastructure, incompatible systems, capacity issues, manual workarounds and historical underinvestment.

Market Risk

APRA Grants Internal Modelling Banks Relief on Market Risk Capital

By Editors | 19/05/2020

APRA will allow internal modelling banks to disregard back-testing exceptions that occurred in March and April when determining capital requirements for market risk.

Structural Regulation

RBNZ Registers ICBC to Provide Banking Services in New Zealand

By Editors | 18/05/2020

The RBNZ expects ICBC to conduct business in New Zealand through both a new branch and a subsidiary it has had registered since November 2013.

Structural Regulation

FMA Approves Over Half of NZ Advisers Under New Regime

By Editors | 18/05/2020

The new financial advice regime is not expected to start until after March 2021, but the FMA has already approved transitional licence applications accounting for more than half of NZ’s financial advisers.

Structural Regulation

Australian Makes Tax Relief for Merging Super Funds Permanent

By Editors | 16/05/2020

Financial Services Council chief Sally Loane welcomed the move, but expressed disappointment with changes that may create another tax compliance burden for managed funds.

Anti-Money Laundering

Westpac Files Defence in Federal Court on its AML/CTF Failures

By Editors | 16/05/2020

While Westpac made a number of admissions regarding AUSTRAC’s claims, the bank said the majority of its international money transfers were correctly reported.

Trading & Investment

ASIC Withdraws Trading Limits Imposed on Equity Market Participants

By Editors | 14/05/2020

Trading restrictions imposed in March due to an abnormally large increase in trades executed have been revoked following processing enhancements by market operators.