The advice provided by lawyers in large law firms to their large commercial and government clients has a significant effect on perceptions of the fairness of the legal system and the social responsibility of large corporations and government bodies. It is likely that this advice is shaped in...

One of the standard regulatory reactions to troubling events in the corporate world -- such as the collapse of one of Australia’s largest insurers, HIH, the Enron failure in the US, and the Polly Peck accounting scandal in the UK -- has been regulation that mandates formally independent...

This article presents some of the feedback garnered as part of the authors' research project into the Independence and the Governance of Superannuation Funds in the context of the Australian Prudential and Regulation Authority's (APRA) recent findings from its thematic review of superannuation...

One of the standard regulatory reactions to troubling events in the corporate world — such as the collapse of one of Australia's largest insurers, HIH, the Enron failure in the US, and the Polly Peck accounting scandal in the UK — has been regulation that mandates formally independent...

In 2006, Christopher Dale leaked information about Clayton Utz's internal investigation into the events surrounding the destruction of documents that would have been relevant and damaging to their client, British American Tobacco, in the 2002 McCabe litigation. This article uses this case study...

This paper summarizes views on the superannuation system and its regulation collected through interviews of fund executives. While the majority of interviewees saw the superannuation system as working relatively well, some areas of concern were detected. Issues raised relate to: certain aspects...

Australia's superannuation (pension) sector is extraordinarily large by almost any measure. The system is the fourth largest in the world with assets under management exceeding $A2 trillion (€1.3 trillion). Approximately two thirds of the system ($A1.2 trillion) is managed in the large-scale...

Custodians play an integral role in the administration of Australia's superannuation system. This article considers the way in which the small number of custodians, and the increasingly diverse set of services they provide to superannuation funds, gives rise to systemic risk within the...

We interview Australian fund executives about how their organisations responded to MySuper, a regulatory framework for default retirement savings funds that providers were required to have in place by the beginning of 2014. In addition to providing an account of the influences on product design...

A series of scandals in the financial services sector over the past twelve years has inspired concerted legislative action to protect customer interests. The Future of Financial Advice, Stronger Super, Protecting Consumers and Member Outcomes initiatives have each sought to reform the duties of...