With the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry now underway, the Company and Securities Law Journal’s (C&SLJ) just published Special Issue on Customer Protection in the Financial Services Industry (Volume 35 Part 7) is timely.

In his editorial, Bob Baxt spoke of being “overwhelmed” by the number of court cases over the last year and a half dealing with failures in the financial services industry – particularly on the part of directors and regulators “in failing to provide adequate protection for investors, consumers and others who have lost hundreds of millions of dollars”.

This Special Issue of C&SLJ investigates the concepts of fairness and protection for financial services customers, the available regulatory mechanisms to achieve those ends, and suggests ideas for improvement in financial services regulation.

The articles in the Special Issue by leading academics in the field, respond to a “challenge”, says M Scott Donald, Guest Editor, and Deputy Director of the Centre for Law, Markets and Regulation (CLMR) at the University of NSW.

“The challenge is that as the public clamour for remediation and change in the aftermath of each reported scandal grows, the prospect of a considered, precisely calibrated response dwindles,” says Dr Donald.

In its press release about the Special Issue, the CLMR said that the academic contributors to the issue offer “perspectives … on the success of financial regulators in delivering qualities such as fairness and accountability to financial markets”

The themes of the Special Issue are explored through the following articles:

  • Regulating for Fairness in the Australian Funds Management Industry – M Scott Donald
  • Whither Customer Protection in Financial Services? – M Scott Donald
  • Fairness and Financial Services: Revisiting the Enforcement Framework – Pamela Hanrahan, Professor and Deputy Head, School of Taxation and Business Law, UNSW Business School
  • The Fairness Rationale for Customer Advocacy in the Financial Sector – Dimity Kingsford Smith, Professor of Law, Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales
  • Suitability – Gail Pearson, Professor of Business Law, The University of Sydney

Click here to access this Part on Westlaw AU

Click here to access this Part on Checkpoint

To purchase an article, please email: [email protected] or contact us on 1300 304 195 (Australian customers) or +61 2 8587 7980 (international customers) during business hours (Mon-Fri, 8am-6pm AEST).

For general queries, please contact: [email protected].