Last month ASIC announced that it is calling upon product issuers to ensure distribution practices are ‘up to scratch’. This announcement follows the release of Report 795 Design and distribution obligations: Compliance with the reasonable steps obligation by ASIC. Alan Kirkland, ASIC Commissioner, has said that improvements across the board are still required to ensure that consumers feel confident that the financial products they purchase will suit their needs.
In 2023, the Australian Government released the 2023-2030 Australian Cyber Security Strategy.
9 October 2024 marked the latest in a series of legislative reforms in pursuit of that strategy, as the Cyber Security Legislative Package 2024 (Package) was introduced to Parliament. The Package has been referred to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security for inquiry and report.
On 10 October 2024, the Federal Government introduced the Treasury Laws Amendment (Mergers and Acquisitions Reform) Bill 2024 (“Bill”) to Parliament. The Bill will amend the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (“CCA”) to implement a mandatory and suspensory merger control regime in place of the former voluntary regime.
The Bill has been introduced following extensive public consultation, resulting in a number of important changes to the proposal set out in the earlier exposure draft.
On 11 September 2024, the Australian Government released a much-anticipated bill which proposes to extend the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regime to real estate professionals, professional service providers including lawyers, accountants and trust and company service providers, and dealers in precious stones and metals.
The first phase of the Government’s proposed implementation of long-anticipated reforms to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“Privacy Act”) was tabled in Parliament on 12 September 2024. The Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 (“Bill”) comes two years after the Attorney-General Department’s report (“Review”) proposed 116 recommendations to reform the Privacy Act. The Government’s response to the Review, in September 2023 (“Response”), “agreed” 38 proposals to be implemented first and this Bill addresses 23 of those proposals.
The ACCC commenced Federal Court proceedings on 23 September against Coles and Woolworths alleging that the two major supermarkets have misled consumers by using their âDown Downâ and âPrices Droppedâ pricing claims in cases where the prices were actually higher than, or the same as, the previous regular price.
The Australian Government has introduced a raft of new digital legislation, including to combat misinformation and disinformation, and hate speech. It has also announced plans for minimum age requirements for social media.
On 13 September 2024, the Australian Government opened public consultation on the proposed Scams Prevention Framework. The Scams Prevention Framework introduces economy-wide reforms designed to combat scams and enhance consumer protections across multiple sectors including banking, telecommunications and digital platform services. Under the proposed regime, regulated entities in designated sectors will be required to take positive steps to detect, prevent and disrupt scams, with significant civil penalties for non-compliance.
On 26 July 2024, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) updated the Guidelines on Licensing for Payment Service Providers (PS-G01), which became effective on 26 August 2024. These changes are applicable to current and future Standard Payment Institutions (SPIs) and Major Payment Institutions under the Payment Services Act (PSA).
The updates can be divided into those that relate to (i) the application process for a new MPI or SPI license or a variation of an existing license under the PSA; and (ii) those that relate to ongoing business conduct.
At the end of August 2024, the Attorney-General published its final guidance on adequate procedures to prevent the commission of foreign bribery. The guidance follows the passage of the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Combatting Foreign Bribery) Act 2024 earlier this year which introduced the new offence of failing to prevent foreign bribery, under which companies can be held directly criminally liable for the foreign bribery activities of their employees, external contractors, agents and subsidiaries, unless the company can demonstrate it had adequate procedures in place to prevent the bribery.