KWM argues against rapid rule changes
The second round of public submissions for the Financial System Inquiry closed on Tuesday, and the slow release by several industry advisers continued yesterday.One submission came from major law firm King & Wood Mallesons. "Now is the time for the Inquiry to make difficult judgments. We eagerly await its recommendations," the firm noted in its summary. The main areas KWM addressed included: RMB internationalisation and advancing Australia as a regional hub - the opportunities offered to Australia by the internationalisation of the RMB and the liberalisation of China's capital account are clear and need to be seized in order for Australia to maintain relevance as a financial centre in the Asian century. Superannuation and retirement products - in the view of KWM, the FSI should not propose any wholesale changes to the existing regulatory settings. "Any such review of the system should be set at a time when a sufficient period will have elapsed to assess the effectiveness of the present system," the firm argued. However, there are areas where the system's effectiveness could be improved, such as encouraging products offering greater choice in securing an income in the retirement phase. When it came to bank resolution powers available to APRA to deal with a distressed bank, in particular one that is considered "too big to fail", KWM said it was "not self-evident that the existence of a statutory bail-in power in and by itself will change the behaviour of market participants so as to reduce the moral hazard associated with an institution being too big to fail." Other major areas of concern for KWM were electronic documentation; facilitating effective communication with customers; and regulation of disclosure and contract documentation.