As a former chief medical officer for CommInsure, I spoke on Four Corners about insurers refusing medical payouts. The Federal Court’s finding last Friday makes it clear how wrong those insurers were.
On Friday the government will receive a report likely to recommend a requirement for advice in a client’s “best interests” be replaced with a requirement to give mere “good advice”.
The royal commission wanted the corporate cop to first ask ‘why not litigate?’. The treasurer’s new guidelines suggest it should instead ask ‘why not negotiate?’.
The government has agreed to create an independently-chaired body to report on the performance of ASIC and APRA, but it hasn’t said its reports will be made public.
There’s concern that paying upfront for the services of mortgage brokers would frighten customers away. But it needn’t, if they provide good service and explain what are charging for.
Suddenly, ASIC is about to have real power. It’ll be easier to get prosecutions and they will hurt, even if the law remains less than completely clear.
In trying to be values-free (like physics & chemistry), business schools have succeeded in justifying amoral behaviour. No more! We’ve seen the results in the Banking Royal Commission.