Regulating Financial Misconduct : ‘Should the Existing Law Be Administered or Enforced Differently?’

This paper reviews the efficacy of the Australian government’s initiatives to counter misconduct identified by its Royal Commission into misconduct in the banking, superannuation and financial services industries. We answer the Commission’s Interim report question as to whether existing law should be administered differently. We propose the formation of stakeholder associations for each financial service firm for each of its stakeholder constituencies to appoint an advocate to become a co-regulator. Firm advocates would advise financial firm shareholders on Key Performance Indicators for directors to protect stakeholder interests on who their revenues depend, and for Parliament to evaluate government Regulators