Corporations Point-in-Time Service Updates

The Corporations Point-in-Time Service has been updated to include the Financial Sector Reform (Hayne Royal Commission Response) Act 2020 (Cth) (Act 135 of 2020), the Corporations (Fees) Amendment (Hayne Royal Commission Response) Act 2020 (Cth) (Act 137 of 2020), the Treasury Laws Amendment (2020 Measures No. 6) Act 2020 (Cth) (Act 141 of 2020), the Territories Legislation Amendment Act 2020 (Cth) (Act 154 of 2020), the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Fees Imposition Regulations 2020 (Cth), and the Corporations Amendment (Corporate Insolvency Reforms) Regulations 2020 (Cth).

Act 135 of 2020

This Act implements a significant number of recommendations of the Financial Services Royal Commission and additional commitments the Government has made to improve consumer protections and strengthen financial regulators. The amendments address conflicts between the interests of financial institutions and their customers, ensure consumers are treated fairly in their dealings with the financial sector, and ensure regulators have the powers and resources needed to be effective in their enforcement and supervision roles.

Some key amendments of the Act aim to:

• Enhance the existing voluntary code of conduct framework to allow ASIC to designate enforceable code provisions in approved codes of conduct
• Implement an industry-wide deferred sales model for the sale of add-on insurance products and introduce of a cap on the commission to be pain in relation to add-on risk products
• Introduce a ban on the hawking of financial products
• Clarify and strengthen breach reporting for Australian service licensees and introduce a comparable regime for Australian credit licensees

Act 137 of 2020

This Act amends the Corporations (Fees) Act 2001 (Cth) to allow ASIC to charge a fee for an application by an entity to be exempted from the deferred sales model.

This Act is part of the package of reforms led by the Financial Sector Reform (Hayne Royal Commission Response) Act 2020 (Cth) (Act 135 of 2020) to implement a significant number of recommendations of the Financial Services Royal Commission.

Act 141 of 2020

Schedule 1 to this Act amends the temporary full expensing and backing business investment provisions in the income tax law to provide greater flexibility for entities to access the concessions. Schedule 1 to the Act also makes other clarifications to the operation of the temporary full expensing and temporary loss carry back provisions.

Schedule 2 to the Act amends the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) by reallocating the responsibility for conducting sectoral assessments and making consumer data rules. Schedule 3 to the Act amends the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission Act 2012 (Cth) to incentivise basic religious charities that may be responsible for past institutional child sexual abuse to join the Redress Scheme.

Schedule 4 to the Act makes a number of minor and technical amendments to various laws in the Treasury portfolio. These amendments make minor and technical changes to correct typographical and numbering errors, bring provisions in line with modern drafting conventions, repeal inoperative provisions, remove administrative inefficiencies, address unintended outcomes and update references, ensuring Treasury laws improve to operate as intended.

Act 154 of 2020

This Act amend the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (Cth), associated Treasury Acts, and various other Acts to fully extend their application to the external territories and ensure all Australian companies operate under the same legislative framework.

Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Fees Imposition Regulations 2020

The purpose of these Regulations is to set out the fees payable for particular actions or notices given or issued under the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975 (Cth). These Regulations also repeal the existing Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Fees Imposition Regulation 2015 (Cth).

These Regulations form part of a broader foreign investment legislation reform package, as announced by the Government on 5 June 2020 to strengthen the foreign investment framework. The amendments establish a fairer and simpler framework for foreign investment fees.

Corporations Amendment (Corporate Insolvency Reforms) Regulations 2020

The purpose of these Regulations is to amend the Corporations Regulations 2001 (Cth) and the Corporations (Fees) Regulations 2001 (Cth) to enable the new debt restructuring and simplified liquidation regimes established by the Corporations Amendment (Corporate Insolvency Reforms) Act 2020 (Cth), including modification of certain fees. The Regulations also make further consequential amendments to the Corporations Regulations 2001 (Cth) that are required as a result of the Insolvency Law Reform Act 2016 (Cth).    

These amendments have been updated in the Point-in-Time Corporations Service current to 11 February 2021. (NB: subscription required).

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