Australian Update - Proposed Code of Practice to Reduce Modern Slavery Through Lending, Investment and Asset Management - The New South Wales (NSW) Anti-Slavery Commissioner (Commissioner) recently released its discussion...more
On 27 March 2024, Australia's climate disclosure regime moved a significant step closer to implementation, with the federal government's introduction of proposed legislation into Parliament. Any organisations with a presence...more
Australian Update - Australian Securities and Investments Commission Continues Greenwashing Enforcement Efforts - On 28 February 2024, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) reported that an outsourced...more
Australia continues to be a highly active jurisdiction for climate-related lawsuits. Since our last update in August 2023, we have seen a steady stream of suits commenced against corporations and government bodies in relation...more
Australian Update - Draft Legislation – Climate-Related Financial Disclosures The Australian Government has released Treasury Laws Amendment Bill 2024: Climate-related financial disclosure, which is draft legislation...more
Regulators and enforcement authorities in Australia intensified their efforts to curb white-collar crime in 2023. They targeted fraud, money laundering, tax evasion, cybercrime, and corruption across multiple industries,...more
Australian Update - ASIC to Focus on Net Zero Statements and Targets - On 21-22 November 2023, the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) hosted the ASIC Annual Forum, outlining: The progress and outcomes ASIC...more
The Corporate Counsel Summit in Sydney, hosted by Lawyers Weekly, brought together more than 300 legal professionals from various industries to discuss the evolving role of in-house lawyers and the emerging challenges they...more
On February 28, 2023, Australia’s securities regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), announced that it had commenced “civil penalty proceedings” in federal court against Mercer Superannuation...more
In recent months, the ASIC’s corporate plan outlining the ASIC’s priorities for the next four years and its plan of action for the year ahead, was released. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is the...more
This edition of the Update covers: - Recent legal and regulatory developments, including the commencement of cyber security incident notification obligations for critical financial market infrastructure assets, AUSTRAC's...more
For the first time in Australia, a court has held in an action brought by Australia’s financial services regulator, ASIC, that the failure by a company to have adequate risk management systems in place to manage cybersecurity...more
This edition of the Update covers: Recent legal and regulatory developments, including the release of regulatory guidance on crypto asset-related investment products, the imposition of additional licence conditions on the...more
The Australian regulator, ASIC, “green-lights” crypto funds and exchanges in Australia, but what’s changed? There have been exaggerated reports that the Australian financial regulator has given the green light to...more
This edition of the Update covers: KEY LEGAL AND REGULATORY DEVELOPMENTS Regulatory Priorities ASIC and APRA Release Their Corporate Plans for 2021-25 On 26 August 2021, the Australian Securities & Investments Commission...more
There are showers, there are squalls, and there are storms. The growth in cybersecurity attacks in Australia, as in much of the world, is a storm and Australian companies need to batten down the hatches. In the period from 1...more
Once purely theoretical, “majority” or “51%” attacks on public blockchains have dealt participants a reality check: The fundamental assumption of Satoshi Nakamoto’s 2008 Bitcoin whitepaper (that computing power will remain...more
The Ethereum Classic blockchain was the victim of a 51% attack (often called a majority or Sybil attack) on January 5, 2019 that reorganized portions of the blockchain and allowed the attackers to double-spend 219,500 ETC...more
U.S. Developments - Federal Bank Regulators Issue Joint Statement on Collaborative BSA/AML Compliance - On October 3, 2018, a group of federal bank regulators and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”)...more
Blockchain Initiatives Pursue Solutions for Refugees, Voting, Smart Cities, Defense and Food Safety - The World Food Programme (WFP) and UN Women announced last week that they are collaborating in an initiative to use...more
Highlighting Changes of Interest in Competition and Consumer Law - ACCC Issues Paper on Digital Platforms Inquiry - Summary - In December 2017, the Australian government directed the ACCC to conduct an inquiry into...more
Financial technology (“fintech”) has exploded in recent years, with innovations like blockchain, artificial intelligence and cloud-based software promising to disrupt every financial service from banking and payments to...more
Innovators are not only disrupting the financial industry but also financial regulation as regulators weigh how to monitor financial technology (fintech) innovators and their new products and services. As they begin to...more