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Consistent with practices overseas, the trend of regulators leveraging the industry’s interconnectedness to enable more effective surveillance and oversight has come to Australia. While in some ways this is a positive development for consumers as it could lead to an uplift in standards of conduct across the board, it means a higher compliance burden on issuers and distributors of financial products. 

On the 6 month anniversary of the introduction of RG274, Design and Distribution Obligations, Jon O’Keeffe hosted a panel of industry experts as they explored: What went well in the implementation journey and lessons learned Progress on Day 2 deliverables The European perspective: 4 years of MiFID II The role of RegTech and automation in supporting compliance

Australian Anti-Money Laundering Rules require an Independent Review of the reporting entity’s AML/CTF Part A Program on a regular basis, which in practice is every one to three years depending on the risk profile of the business. Whether you’re new to AML Independent Reviews or it’s been a while since the last one, this article looks to provide you with insights on some of the key components of a Part A Program Independent Review so that you can anticipate and prepare for what is hopefully a quick and painless review.   

It’s back to school this week signalling that the holiday period is well and truly over. Back to the grind with the addition of rapid antigen testing this year! Over the break, we have been reflecting on the year that was in 2021 and what is to come in 2022. Without doubt, the past year was almost unprecedented in the amount of regulatory change. This year offers some much-needed reprieve with few changes announced for the year thus far. Government and Regulatory bodies are actively consulting with industry and other stakeholders to shape the next round of changes. And industry is using this time to take a breath, review and iterate what has been done in 2021. Given the confluence of change in October last year, we see a number of deliverables which were deferred to ‘day 2’ rightfully getting attention now. To help out with your planning, we’ve compiled a short list of things consider for the year ahead.

Data is in abundance these days. Companies are hungry for even the most mundane data points in a quest to glean insights to transform customer experience and product offerings. While many organisations are challenged with how to turn this data into usable insights, it’s clear that ASIC remains ready to welcome data with open arms. True to their 2017-2020 data strategy, ASIC is preparing to receive large quantities of standardised, searchable data sets from regulated entities thanks to prescriptive requirements in impending legislation (e.g. RG 271’s complaints data pilot, reportable situation form supporting RG 78). Recent notices have also shifted away from ‘Please explain’ language to targeted data requests, further feeding ASIC’s ravenous data repository. In recent years there have been numerous examples of ASIC’s data-driven approach to information gathering leading to ASIC gleaning insights that may have taken some in the industry by surprise. Reverse mortgages, add on insurance sales, breach reporting and the labelling of cash funds to name a few.

We are surrounded by talking forests. Within them, trees are involved in dramatic fights for survival as they rescue one another from danger, share vital nutrients and communicate.  If you’ve seen our website and LinkedIn page, you may have noticed our heavy use of tree imagery. Today, we’d like to explain why.