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Financial Services AU

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    NSW Contingency Fee Push Could Accelerate Class Suits

    Proposals for New South Wales to introduce contingency fees in class actions could speed up litigation and allow litigants and experienced lawyers to stay in the state when duking it out in court rather than travel to Victoria, plaintiff and defence class action litigators say.

    Judge Allows 'Bad in Law' IAG Class Action Amendment

    A Victorian Supreme Court judge has allowed a "bad in law" amendment on market-based causation to be included in a shareholder class action case against Insurance Australia Group Ltd on Monday despite the insurer's complaints it should not be permitted.

    wooden block letters spelling out 'pension'

    Judge Approves $10.3M Mercer Super Fine For Reporting Fails

    The Federal Court has approved a $10.3m penalty against Mercer Super for failures alerting ASIC to investigations into several issues, including charging insurance premiums after a member's death and failures to provide death and permanent disability insurance cover for eligible members.

  • June 30, 2026

    Government Urges Probe on Visa-Mastercard, Apple Pay Grip

    A Federal government inquiry has recommended the ACCC investigate the impact of the duopoly of Visa and Mastercard on small businesses and consumers, and the dominance of Apple Pay including possible regulatory intervention to open up its secure payments technology without forcing developers to enter into commercial deals.

  • June 30, 2026

    Senator O'Neill Pushes KPMG To Release Whistleblower Docs

    Labor Senator Deborah O'Neill urged KPMG Australia on Monday to publicly release documents provided to Parliament regarding the firm's whistleblower scandal, as Greens Senator Barbara Pocock pressed the government to cancel a $1.3 million KPMG ethics training contract she said didn't pass the "pub test."

  • June 29, 2026

    ASIC Warns Super Trustees Over 'Persistent Failures'

    ASIC has fired a warning shot at Australia's superannuation trustees alleging "stark and persistent failures" including gaps in advice fee controls, insufficient focus on lead generators and inadequate monitoring of high-risk activities like member churn and unusual fund flows.

  • June 29, 2026

    HMC Capital Taps $1.3B In Private Credit For Real Estate Debt

    Asset manager HMC Capital Limited says it has secured $1.35 billion in private credit agreements to be invested into Australian commercial real estate loans, according to an Australian stock exchange statement on Monday.

  • June 26, 2026

    ASIC Sues Ex-Keystone Directors On Shield Super Conflicts

    ASIC said it is suing three directors of Keystone Asset Management in the Federal Court for breach of director duties including "conflicted arrangements and poor oversight" over the $530 million of superannuation invested into the collapsed Shield Master Fund that Keystone operated and managed.

  • June 26, 2026

    RBA To Probe Online Payments, Mobile Wallets, BNPL Rules

    The Reserve Bank of Australia says it is reviewing payments system regulation amid a surge in adoption of mobile wallets like Apple Pay, account-to-account payments, buy-now pay-later and AI agents initiating payments in e-commerce, according to a statement on Thursday.

  • June 26, 2026

    ASIC Gives Crypto Firms Longer To Secure Financial Licences

    ASIC said on Thursday digital asset firms offering financial services like crypto derivatives have an extra three months to comply with rules requiring them to apply for or change an existing Australian financial services licence.

  • June 25, 2026

    Shine Taps AI Strategy Chief, Names Class Action Leader

    Shine Lawyers has appointed Peter Gibson to lead its legal technology and stakeholder strategies in a newly-created national role as it targets ethical artificial intelligence adoption, the law firm said on Wednesday.

  • June 25, 2026

    Gilbert + Tobin Elevates 7 Partners, 9 Special Counsel

    Gilbert + Tobin, one of Australia's largest law firms, announced seven new partners and nine special counsel to start at the firm's Sydney, Melbourne and Perth offices from July 1, in a statement today.

  • June 25, 2026

    APRA Eyes Diversa Exec Bonuses On First Guardian Collapse

    APRA is investigating the management bonuses and pay of embattled superannuation trustee Diversa Trustees, the regulator said on Thursday, whose CEO Andrew Peterson took home more than half-a-million dollars in bonuses at the same time as members lost hundreds of millions investing in the collapsed First Guardian Master fund on Diversa's platform.

  • June 25, 2026

    ACCC Sues Credit Clear On Alleged Misleading Debt Notices

    The ACCC is suing two subsidiaries of debt collection service provider Credit Clear Limited in the Federal Court over 320,000 debt collection notices the regulator alleges were misleading to consumers by falsely claiming they owed debts already paid, or owed beyond the statutory time limit.

  • June 24, 2026

    NSW Law Society Says Budget Neglects Regional Courts

    The Law Society of NSW has criticised the state government's budget for failing to upgrade ageing courthouses in regional NSW, in a statement on Tuesday.

  • June 24, 2026

    AFSA Flags Bank Responsibility In Personal Insolvency Misuse

    Australian Financial Securities Authority Chief Executive Tim Beresford called on banks to more actively engage in personal insolvency proposals and creditor meetings amid a surge in people "manipulating" them to secure their wealth in a speech on Tuesday.

  • June 23, 2026

    Financial Advisers Oppose Advice Curbs After Shield Collapse

    The financial advisory industry has signalled strong opposition to ending exemptions to anti-hawking rules arguing it would have a "significant negative impact" on advice access, in a direct rejection of proposals by the Federal Government into the billion-dollar collapse of the Shield and First Guardian superannuation funds.

  • June 23, 2026

    KPMG Australia Chairman Resigns Amid Audit Furore

    KPMG Australia Chairman Martin Sheppard on Tuesday announced his resignation from the board and the exit of former chief operating officer Eileen Hoggett and audit partner Paul Rogers in the fallout from the whistleblower scandal. 

  • June 22, 2026

    Australia High Court Chief Justice Pay Frozen At $688,780

    High Court of Australia Chief Justice Stephen Gageler AC will be paid a base salary of $688,780, the same level as a year earlier, according to a Tribunal decision on Thursday, with the pay level of his fellow High Court justices also held at $625,050.

  • June 22, 2026

    Ex-DPP Jon White SC Named ACT Supreme Court Judge

    Jon White SC, a former ACT director of public prosecutions, is the new resident judge on the ACT Supreme Court from Monday, the ACT Attorney General announced.

  • June 22, 2026

    Equity Trustees Exits Super Trusteeship Amid ASIC Cases

    Equity Trustees, the superannuation trustee facing two civil cases by ASIC for diligence failures in the decision allowing its members to invest in the collapsed First Guardian Master and Shield Master funds, says it is exiting independent superannuation trusteeship citing regulatory shifts.

  • June 19, 2026

    Ashurst Says Law Firm Did Not Conduct KPMG Investigation

    Global law firm Ashurst told a parliamentary inquiry on Friday it did not conduct an investigation into KPMG's whistleblower, in a direct challenge to the auditing firm's claims to senators.

  • June 19, 2026

    Lendlease Chair Says KPMG Audit Access A 'Grave Misuse'

    Lendlease Chairman John Gillam said KPMG's alleged use of confidential information in their audit to win new accounts is a "grave misuse of access privilege" and they are "deeply disappointed" by the "fundamental breach of trust" by the auditor, in a parliamentary hearing on Friday.

  • June 18, 2026

    HSBC Australia Fined $35M, Admits To Serious Scam Failures

    HSBC Australia must pay a $35 million penalty after admitting to serious failures to protect customers against scams that left some clients losing their life savings, a Federal Court of Australia judge ruled on Thursday, matching the fines sought by the regulator and bank. 

  • June 18, 2026

    Justices Signal Struggles With Causation In CBA Class Action

    Two High Court justices pushed Commonwealth Bank of Australia shareholders to explain how the bank's failure to disclose anti-money laundering failures caused their alleged losses, suggesting that the shareholders' causation theory was complicated and not necessarily in line with precedent they cited.

  • June 17, 2026

    APRA Warns Banks To Meet Threat Of Geopolitical Risks

    APRA Chair John Lonsdale said the financial services industry needs to lift its standards to protect against geopolitical shocks, in a speech on Wednesday, citing the risks of foreign interference, sanctions and frontier AI models which threaten to change the nature, speed, and scale of cyber, disinformation and operational risks.

  • June 17, 2026

    ASIC Wins High Court Fight Over Block Earner Crypto Product

    The High Court of Australia on Wednesday ruled Block Earner's "Earner" crypto-linked fixed-yield product was a financial investment product and required a financial services license in a win for ASIC and clarification for what constitutes a "financial product" under corporate law.

  • June 16, 2026

    Law Council Defends Client Legal Privilege Amid KPMG Probe

    The Law Council of Australia has challenged the "public misapprehension" that legal professional privilege is inherently scandalous and against the public interest, amid concerns legal privilege will be used to shield KPMG from government regulator requests into the consultancy giant's alleged misuse of confidential client information.

Expert Analysis

  • What ACCC Data Reveals About Finance Deals

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    Recent Australian Competition and Consumer Commission data confirm that clearances under the new mandatory merger control regime are moving faster than anticipated and that the system’s waiver process works particularly well for low-risk transactions, making it a natural fit for the financial services sector, say lawyers at Squire Patton.

  • Australian Payments Reg. Proposals Will Broaden Oversight

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    The Australian government’s recent payments regulation proposals for a more activity-based licensing framework will significantly expand the perimeter of entities, indicating that the regulators view payment systems, digital assets and tokenized financial infrastructure as part of a connected regulatory ecosystem, say lawyers at Corrs.

  • Australia's Computer Patent Ruling Will Aid Global Companies

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    While courts around the world have struggled to articulate a technology-neutral test for patentability of computer-implemented inventions, a recent decision by Australia's top court offers a decisive answer, creating strategic opportunities for overseas applicants, say attorneys at Mallesons.

  • Assessing The Significance Of Australia-EU's Free Trade Deal

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    The recently concluded Australia-European Union free trade agreement could be a springboard for a more ambitious initiative bringing together the EU and the economies of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, a critical mass capable of shaping norms across subsidies, sustainability disciplines and competition policy, says Alan Yanovich at Akin Gump.

  • Decoding Arbitral Disputes: ICSID Enforcement In Australia

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    The Federal Court of Australia recently ruled for award creditors in Blasket Renewable Investments v. Spain in a judgment that explains how Australia's statute book operationalizes the promise of depoliticized enforcement under the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes Convention while accommodating, without yielding to, the centrifugal forces of European Union law, says Josep Galvez at 4-5 Gray's Inn.