March 2007
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AUSTRAC has finalised a series of rules under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006. This includes the requirements for customer identification and verification procedures, and anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing programs. The rules are available at:
http://www.austrac.gov.au/aml_ctf_rules.html
The Government's simpler superannuation legislation has been enacted. The package comprises the Superannuation Legislation Amendment (Simplification) Act 2007, Tax Laws Amendment (Simplified Superannuation) Act 2007, Income Tax Rates Amendment (Superannuation) Act 2007, Superannuation (Excess Concessional Contributions Tax) Act 2007, Superannuation (Excess Non-concessional Contributions Tax) Act 2007, Superannuation (Excess Untaxed Roll-over Amounts Tax) Act 2007 and Superannuation (Departing Australia Superannuation Payments Tax) Act 2007. For a copy, go to:
Treasury has released a package of draft corporations amendment regulations to address some of the technical issues identified in the previously announced 35 proposed changes to the regulation of financial services and corporations. These include some relief in relation to financial services guides and statements of advice; relief from the dollar disclosure provisions for general insurance; power to incorporate information in disclosure documents by reference; a reduction in oral disclosure requirements for certain financial services guides and statements of advice; and removal of the obligation on public companies to notify ASIC each year of their top 20 shareholders. A copy of the draft corporations amendment regulations and explanatory material is available at:
http://www.treasury.gov.au/contentitem.asp?NavId=037&ContentID=1244
ACCC has issued guidelines on deferral of arbitrations and backdating of final determinations under Part IIIA of the Trade Practices Act. The guidelines reflect the amendments made in the Trade Practices Amendment (National Access Regime) Act 2006 which commenced on 1 October 2006. For a copy, go to:
http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/773724
APRA has released final prudential standards and guidance on risk management and business continuity management for life insurance companies and friendly societies to come into effect on 1 January 2008. They are available at:
http://www.apra.gov.au/Life/Prudential-Standards.cfm
http://www.apra.gov.au/Life/Life-Insurance-PPGs.cfm.
ASIC has warned superannuation trustees that it expects them to disclose the simpler superannuation changes to fund members within a timeframe that allows members to act on the changes and determine whether they need to vary their superannuation arrangements. See Information Release IR 07-14:
ASIC has extended the current transitional relief for general insurance products from the dollar disclosure requirements from 1 April 2007 to 30 June 2008. See Information Release IR 07-11:
ASIC has released a policy proposal paper proposing relief from the requirement to prepare a prospectus or product disclosure statement when securities are offered as consideration under a foreign regulated takeover. The paper also proposes licensing relief for the provision of general advice that is contained in a bid document for a foreign regulated takeover. The relief is designed to encourage foreign bidders to extend shares offers to Australian shareholders rather than exclude them from the offer. The proposed relief is subject to conditions, including that Australian residents hold no more than 10% of the target securities, and the target securities are quoted on an approved foreign market. For a copy of the paper, go to:
ASIC has amended Policy Statement 159: Takeovers, compulsory acquisitions and substantial holding notices to incorporate its policy on joint takeover bids. For a copy of the amended Policy Statement, go to:
http://www.asic.gov.au/asic/pdflib.nsf/LookupByFileName/ps159.pdf/$file/ps159.pdf
ASX has identified that a number of participants may have breached the requirements of ASX Market Rule S1A.2.6 in relation to cross guarantees. It has reminded participants that the ASX Market Rules do not allow participants who are subject to the risk based capital requirements to give cross guarantees. See ASX Circular 085/07:
Austrac has issued Information Circulars 47 and 48 concerning the US Department of the Treasury's media release designating certain Iranian banks and entities and United Nations Security Council Resolution 1737 on Iran’s nuclear program. For a copy, go to:
http://www.austrac.gov.au/files/24266_aic_iran_entities.pdf
http://www.austrac.gov.au/files/24267_aic_un_res_1737_iran.pdf
SFE has published "best practice" guidelines regarding internal transfers that participants execute on behalf of their clients and how they should be reported to the SFE and represented to clients. See SFE Notice 23/07:
http://www.sfe.com.au/content/notices/2007/notice2007_023.pdf
The Federal Government has recently issued 3 discussion papers on corporate law reform, covering insider trading laws, the sanctions regime for Corporations Act breaches and ASIC infringement notices for continuous disclosure contraventions. For a summary, see Allens Arthur Robinson, Focus: Regulation and Compliance - 9 March 2007:
http://www.aar.com.au/pubs/pdf/ldr/foracmar07.pdf
For a general discussion of recent developments in employee relations law, see Allens Arthur Robinson, Focus: Workplace Relations - March 2007:
http://www.aar.com.au/pubs/pdf/wr/fowrmar07.pdf
The Uniform Consumer Credit Code is to be amended to extend the expiry date of the mandatory comparison rate provisions of the UCCC until 30 June 2009. See Deacons, Legal Update: Proposed Extension to Expiry Date of the UCCC Mandatory Comparison Rate Provisions - 15 March 2007:
http://www.deacons.com.au/NewsUpdates/Newsroom/LegalUpdates.cfm?objid=5965
For a general discussion of recent developments in employee relations law, see Allens Arthur Robinson, Intellectual Property Bulletin - March 2007:
http://www.aar.com.au/pubs/pdf/ip/ipbullmar07.pdf
For a general outline of the Australian tax issues arising from the development, transfer and licensing of intellectual property, see the 2007 edition of Blake Dawson Waldron, Tax Issues for Intellectual Property:
http://www.bdw.com.au/publications/taxip/taxip200703.pdf
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