This article examines the research conducted by Michael Adams and Jeremy Green into the Changes in Liability for the Superannuation Industry that was commissioned by the Fund Executives Association Limited in August 2001. The surprise result was that the number of criminal offences found in Ch 7 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) will increase by 289% after 11 March 2002. The Financial Services Reform Act 2001 (Cth) has many subtle changes caused by policy and legislative changes. The impact of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) and the transfer of ‘tandem liability offences’ from the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (Cth) have also had a significant impact. Finally, a policy discussion as to whether severely increasing criminal offences actually provides an improvement in the behaviour of financial services industry players.

This paper explored the history of the regulation of corporate bodies through State and Commonwealth systems beginning in 1989 that resulted in the development of the legislation impacting on small proprietary company for over 20 years. The introduction of the Corporate Governance Principles for listed companies by the Australian Securities Exchange added another layer of regulation intended to promote transparency and accountability. Research into corporate governance in small companies showed that, in contrast to opinions about the US Legislation, very few Australian companies expressed negative views about corporate governance regulation. The most recent addition to corporate governance regulation has been the expectation that companies have a responsibility for corporate social responsibility. This was illustrated by the James Hardy Industries case.

This article examines a preliminary review and the limited evidence of over-regulation in Australian financial services. The 1997 Wallis Report and the CLERP 6 paper, resulted in the amendments to Ch 7 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) by the Financial Services Reform Act. Nearly a decade later the system based upon 'one-size fits all', dual track regime and a consistent licensing regime has greatly increased the costs of compliance. In the area of enforcement there has not been a dramatic change to the effective techniques applied by ASIC over other agencies, such as APRA. In particular there are clear economic arguments, as well as international experiences which state that a single financial services regulator is more effective than the multi-layered approach adopted in Australia. Finally, in the superannuation area of financial services, which is worth A$800 billion, there is unnecessary dual licensing and duplicated regulation, with little evidence of any consumer-member benefit, but at a much greater cost.

The Financial Services Reform Act has brought with it a raft of new obligations if one carries on a financial services business - what is financial product advice - exemptions for lawyers and accountants - the 'factual information' exemption - financial product advice and the use of disclaimers - implications stemming from giving advice - providing financial product or personal advice to retail clients - distinctions between advice and information and personal and general advice are not clear - drafting of the legislation is ambiguous.