The Turnbull government will ban businesses from charging consumers excessive surcharges on their credit cards, and move to inject more competition into the superannuation industry.
Voluntary administration was considered a state-of-the-art rescue procedure for struggling companies in 1993. But is is time for another wide-ranging review of our insolvency laws?
The wheels of justice grind exceedingly slow and nowhere slower than in the Sydney headquarters of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). A recent report appears to show that ASIC…
A key component of the Financial System Inquiry handed to Treasurer Joe Hockey this week was that “the financial system should be subject and responsive to market forces, including competition”. But on…
Since the global financial crisis, credit growth in Australia has returned. But while growth in home lending between 2008 and 2014 was relatively strong (0.49% per month), it was actually negative for…
Having led the world in the 1990s in embracing defined contribution retirement plans, Australia now is rightly reviewing whether the design of its retirement income system is meeting the needs of Australians…
A good proportion of the Financial System Inquiry’s 460-page interim report is dedicated to a discussion of superannuation and, in particular, to making the financial system better at facilitating the…
Reading between the lines it appears the panel behind Australia’s wide-reaching Financial System Inquiry believes all is not well in the financial advice industry, despite last year’s implementation of…
Charis Palmer, La Conversation Canada et Emil Jeyaratnam, La Conversation Canada
The last financial system inquiry held in Australia happened in 1997. More than a decade and a global financial crisis later, the sector is under scrutiny again. The inquiry delivered its interim report…
Australia’s financial system is competitive and well regulated, but more work is required to boost superannuation competition, according to the interim report of the Financial System Inquiry, led by former…
At the current frequency of financial system inquiries (Campbell 1982, Wallis 1997, Murray 2014) there will not be another until 2030. That makes this week’s interim report from David Murray all the more…
Over 40% of mortgages in Australia are sold by mortgage brokers, not by their manufacturers - an issue that has the CEO of Australia’s fifth largest bank, Suncorp, arguing the sector is skewed towards…
The main reason superannuation costs are too high in Australia is both simple and horrendously complex: it’s the only service we buy where we give the service provider our money to look after. It’s true…