Welcome to Issue 49 of the FSC Policy Update. In 2021, this member briefing on the main legislative and regulatory changes across the financial services industry will be issued monthly.  Parliament resumed for the last two weeks of February and there was progress on a range of outstanding policy issues. The Parliament passed the Royal Commission bill implementing the annual renewal recommendations, the Government introduced its ‘Your Future, Your Super’ reforms to the House of Representatives, but had not yet released the crucial Regulations, and a review into AFCA was commenced. Read more

The FSC is doing extensive work to help members prepare for the start of the Design & Distribution Obligations (DDO) regime, which begins in October 2021.  Read more

We constantly talk about removing red tape, but it almost never gets done. Read more

With the Design and Distribution Obligations (DDO) due to commence 5 October this year, the release of ASIC Regulatory Guide RG 274 Product Design and Distribution Obligations (RG 274) in December 2020 was eagerly anticipated by the industry. Read more

I was very pleased to recently host the FSC’s policy team in a detailed member briefing on the policy priorities for 2021. Read more

In the initial stages of the pandemic, writer Elif Shafak, in her recently published essay How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division, recalled seeing signage spring up in parks in London with the question: “when all this is over how do you want the world to be a different place?”. Read more