Author Archives: ETE

The FCA is committed to helping investors put environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters at the heart of their investment decisions. To help enable this, the FCA is today publishing a Discussion Paper to coincide with COP26 Finance Day, inviting views on potential criteria to classify and label investment products. This will help consumers navigate […]

ASIC has commenced civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court against Ferratum Australia Pty Ltd (Ferratum) for charging prohibited fees and overcharging consumers who paid off loans early. ASIC alleges that between March 2019 and August 2021, Ferratum breached consumer credit protection laws in relation to small amount credit contracts by: charging borrowers prohibited fees […]

Fraudsters are using the details of firms we authorise to try to convince people that they work for a genuine, authorised firm. Find out more about this ‘clone firm’. Almost all firms and individuals carrying out financial services activities in the UK have to be authorised or registered by us. This firm is not authorised […]

ASIC has commenced civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court against two individuals in relation to sales incentive programs offered by Freedom Insurance Pty Ltd (in liquidation). Freedom Insurance was a case study in the Financial Services Royal Commission. The proceedings allege Keith Cohen, the former Managing Director of Freedom, and Robert Oayda, a former […]

The Federal Court has ordered Colonial First State Investments Limited (Colonial), as trustee for the Colonial First State FirstChoice Superannuation Trust (FirstChoice Fund), to pay a penalty of $20 million for misleading communications with members. The Court noted this to be a substantial penalty for serious contraventions of the law. The Court previously declared Colonial […]

We believe this firm may be providing financial services or products in the UK without our authorisation. Find out why you should be wary of dealing with this unauthorised firm and how to protect yourself. Almost all firms and individuals offering, promoting or selling financial services or products in the UK have to be authorised […]

Fraudsters are using the details of firms we authorise to try to convince people that they work for a genuine, authorised firm. Find out more about this ‘clone firm’. Almost all firms and individuals carrying out financial services activities in the UK have to be authorised or registered by us. This firm is not authorised […]

ASIC has today issued regulatory relief to help reduce red tape and provide certainty for companies in external administration. The relief relates to certain financial reporting and annual general meeting (AGM) obligations which continue to apply when a company is in external administration. Specifically, it provides conditional relief to companies in external administration by: extending […]

The sterling, Japanese yen, Swiss franc and euro LIBOR panels are ceasing on 31 December 2021. Today, the FCA is confirming that to avoid disruption to legacy contracts that reference the 1-, 3- and 6-month sterling and Japanese yen LIBOR settings, it will require the LIBOR benchmark administrator to publish these settings under a ‘synthetic’ […]

ASIC has published updated regulatory guidance on the prohibition of hawking financial products. ASIC’s updated regulatory guide (RG 38) reflects the reforms to the anti-hawking regime under the Financial Sector Reform (Hayne Royal Commission Response) Act 2020, which commence on 5 October 2021. These reforms flow from recommendations of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in […]