Welcome to the Financial Services Bulletin, June 2017

Please read on for the latest industry news, important case law developments, our selection of recent FOS and SCT determinations and the answer to a client's question on the Capability Clause in our topical 'Turks Q&A' segment.

We hope you enjoy this edition of the FSB!

Industry News

Important changes to Australian Capital Territory discrimination legislation
The Australian Capital Territory has expanded the number of ‘protected attributes’ protected by law from discrimination (expanded from 15 to 24) under the Discrimination Act 1991 (Australian Capital Territory).

Changes to the powers of the Australian Human Rights Commission
Recent changes to the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 (Cth) in the recent amendments to the Commonwealth anti-discrimination regime impact on the powers of the Australian Human Rights Commission and have implications for the way in which insurers may wish to approach complaints made to the Commission.

ASIC Proposes Reforms to AFSL Breach Reporting Regime
The ASIC Enforcement Review Taskforce has produced a consultation paper, 'Self-Reporting of contraventions by financial services and credit licensees', which identifies concerns within the current self-reporting regime and proposes preliminary reforms to address them. The proposed reforms are broadly outlined in this article.

Cases and Tribunal Decisions

Federal Court finds first breach of best interests duty
Australian Securities and Investments Commission v NSG Services Pty Ltd
In this decision, the Court found that financial advice firm NSG Services had failed to take reasonable steps to ensure that its advisers acted in the best interests of its clients when providing advice and as a result, on a number of occasions, NSG advisers provided clients with advice that was inappropriate.

Recent FOS & SCT Decisions

• FOS finds blanket mental health exclusion breaches Disability Discrimination Act (Cth),
• Where there’s a Will there’s not always a way

TurksLegal Q&A

In this edition of TurksLegal Q&A, we respond to a client's question about the Capability Clause.

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