After a considerable gestation period the proposed new design and distribution obligations for financial products, and intervention powers for ASIC, took their first, tentative steps yesterday, with the release of exposure draft legislation. ...

Consumer claims continued to dominate in 2023, accounting for 40% of filings, up from 32% last year, while shareholder claims dropped to 20% from 29% and employee claims remained stable at 15%. 'In ...

In this Insight, we examine the key trends in board skills and diversity reporting across Australia's top 50 ASX-listed entities over the last three years, provide an update regarding proposed changes to the ASX Corporate Governance Council's Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations. ...

We outline the key aspects of the Australian Sanctions Regime, the practical issues that corporations may encounter when implementing and managing their sanctions compliance frameworks, as well as some recent case studies to illustrate how the regime can apply. ...

The focus on businesses' obligations regarding human rights has grown considerably in recent years. In this Insight, we identify some of the central business and human rights themes from 2023, and set out our predictions for the year ahead. ...

On 12 January 2024, the Federal Government released the exposure draft of the Treasury Laws Amendment Bill: Climate-related financial disclosure. In this Insight, we explain key elements of the Draft Legislation, including areas of uncertainty that have been raised in submissions to government. ...

The Equator Principles Association unveiled the finalised fourth version of the Equator Principles (EP4) on 18 November 2019. Set for an effective date of 1 July 2020, EP4 heightens requirements for designated OECD countries and tightens due diligence assessments with a greater focus on human rights, climate change and biodiversity. While there are many improvements and refinements from the draft we reviewed in June, the only potentially material change is a compromise on the 'free prior and informed consent' requirement for affected Indigenous communities. ...

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, global sanctions proliferated rapidly. This trend continued in 2023, and the World Trade Organisation estimates that 12% of global trade is now affected by sanctions. ...

An increased focus on taxing indirect real property transfers has seen the 'land-rich' or 'landholder' duty rules expand significantly over the years, resulting in far more transactions being liable to duty. ...

Software company Palantir Technologies was recently announced as the US Army's choice to deploy a complex combat intelligence system valued at US$800 million. ...