The Final Report of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry was released in Australia in February 2019. The Hayne report provides recommendations that seek to build on or simplify existing Australian laws and practices to strengthen the financial system while supporting economic growth.
Our Australian colleagues have summarised the report and you can download the document, Royal Commission Report – Where to Next?, via the link below.
What is most interesting for us in Ireland are both the methodology applied in performing the review, which involved consideration to varying degrees of over 10,000 complaints submitted to the Commissions website, and the cross-sectoral approach taken. Many of the recommendations focus on eliminating various exceptions and limitations within existing legislation that otherwise result in a highly inconsistent approach to the regulation of financial services conduct across products such as mortgages, motor loans, pensions, and life insurance.
Also of interest is the connection made between organisational culture, governance and remuneration, all areas of significant regulatory attention in Ireland at present. The Hayne report is clear, direct and whilst not seeking fundamental restructuring of financial services conduct regulation, makes a lot of pragmatic recommendations that will bring significant challenges to how intermediaries are used, how the senior accountable executive regime is applied in Australia, and in specific areas such as how pension scheme trustees manage conflicts of interest.
If there are areas in the EY summary or indeed in the full report (available here) that you would like to discuss, don’t hesitate to let us know.
