ASIC asks mortgage brokers: Is your panel good enough?
Mortgage brokers will be required to satisfy themselves that recommending from within their lender panel is in the consumer’s best interests. And they should be able to make a “holistic” assessment of…
Equity gearing making a comeback
After a decade of decline, prospects for margin lending and other equity investment gearing products may be looking up. The latest data shows a pickup in lending and a well-known stockbroking firm…
Old is new again at the SMSF Association
The SMSF Association has appointed Andrew Hamilton as chair. He has been a member of the board for over nine years and was previously chair from 2012 to 2014. He takes over…
Restore tax in the super pension phase
The government’s retirement income review is being told our current tax and benefit treatment of retirement incomes is a mess. Much of financial planning industry is devoted to structuring affairs to maximise…
Better advice model needed
Australians don’t like the way financial advice is being currently offered to them and would prefer piece by piece advice when they need it. Michael Blomfield, chief executive of Investment Trends revealed…
TPB’s CPE plan questioned
The Tax Practitioners Board is considering an increase in the minimum number of continuing professional education (CPE) hours required for all tax practitioners to 40 hours a year. The TPB hopes to…
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ASIC licensing and banning powers beefed up
Recommendations of the 2016 ASIC Enforcement Review Taskforce that the regulator’s powers be strengthened have finally been put into legislation, with the passage of a bill last week that strengthens ASIC’s licensing powers and extends its banning powers. It also…
People: Braintree head moves to payments hopeful
Payments processing company Monoova (formerly MoneyTech Payments) has hired Tyson Hackwood to be its head of growth. Hackwood joins from PayPal’s Braintree, where he was head of Asia Pacific. At Monoova he will be responsible for promoting the adoption of…
The rise of renters by choice
The private rental sector has expanded at more than twice the rate of the increase in Australian households in the last two decades. This increasingly diverse form of tenure now houses about one in four of us. Australia’s lightly regulated…
SuperAA morphs into Seamless SMSF
The self-managed super fund (SMSF) administration and audit firm Superannuation Advisors Australia – known as “SuperAA” is changing its name to Seamless SMSF to better reflect its service delivery and product suite. Set up in 2013 by CEO Mike McHenry,…
ACCC spells out Open Banking rules
Consumers will have an online “consumer dashboard” to allow them to manage their data consents when the Consumer Data Right in banking kicks off in July. Details of the dashboard are included in the rules for the Consumer Data Right…
Mortgage broker best interests duty bill passed
From July, mortgage brokers will have to comply with current responsible lending obligations and a new best interests duty. Responsible lending and best interests are not the same thing. According to the information memorandum accompanying the bill that was passed…
Industry pushes back against latest financial services reforms
Proposed annual fee renewal arrangements, the disclosure of “lack of independence” and a deferred sales model for add-on insurance are the most controversial aspects of a raft of changes to financial services law introduced in a draft bill last week…
