[HS] 9th Annual Credit Law Conference
Join industry leaders, key regulators and legal experts to examine the practical implications of the current reform agenda currently facing the banking and financial services industry. Unpack legislative reforms being implemented that impact privacy, security of information and identity management, cybersecurity, data breaches, SoCI and BNPL. 248N18
Description
Attend and earn 7 CPD units including:
4 units in Substantive Law
3 units in Professional Skills
This program is applicable to practitioners from all States & Territories
Session 1
Reducing Risk of Liability: Financial Services Regulatory Reform and the Implications of AI
Chair: Andrea Beatty, Partner, Piper Alderman; Author of ‘Annotated National Credit Code’, the ‘Australia’ chapters in the ‘Consumer Finance Law Review’ and the ‘Banking Regulation Review’
9.00am to 9.20am Keynote address by The Hon Stephen Jones MP, Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services
Professional Skills
9.20am to 10.15am Future of Credit Under AI and New Technology
Business bankers are navigating unprecedented challenges, including high interest rates, rising operating costs, and deteriorating credit quality. Industry leaders are adopting innovative strategies centered on leveraging both predictive and generative AI to drive growth and profitability.
- Discover how banks can embed AI across their operations to deepen customer relationships, enhance performance, and achieve sustainable growth
Presented by Gordon Campbell, CCO and Co-Founder of Rich Data Co
10.15am to 11.10am Privacy Law Reform: Status Update and Implications for Credit Providers
The privacy landscape is the subject of debate and change. This is in part due to the review of the Privacy Act 1988 and many reforms in adjacent areas such as security and identity management. Privacy has also been the subject of significant enforcement activity by the regulators and the subject of litigation. Some current key issues and their implications for credit providers are:
- Definition of personal information and why it matters for credit providers and providers of credit risk related services
- ‘Fair and reasonable test’ and scope of application
- New causes of action and how this may impact credit providers and their clients
- Lessons learned from recent incidents and enforcement activity such as Optus, Medibank and Latitude
Presented by Olga Ganopolsky, General Counsel Privacy & Data, Macquarie Group; Chair Privacy Committee Business Law Section Law Council of Australia
11.10am to 11.25am Morning Tea
11.25am to 12.20pm Cybersecurity: Compliance with Cybersecurity Regulations and Breach Reporting Requirements
- Security of Critical Infrastructure (SoCI) framework
- The role of SOCI legislation in the overall cybersecurity regulatory landscape
- Complying with S0CI and the Critical Infrastructure Resilience Strategy
- CPS230 Operational Risk Management Standard
- Interaction with SoCI
- Compliance by 2025 deadline
- The role of governance across all of the cybersecurity obligatio
- Data breach and reporting cyber incidents
Presented by Steven Klimt, Partner, Clayton Utz; Recognised in Best Lawyers Australia for Banking and Finance (2013-2024), Government (2021-2024) and Regulatory Practice2014-2024); and Craig Subocz, Partner, Piper Alderman
12.20pm to 1.15pm Buy Now Pay Later: Implications of Guidance and Reforms
- AFIA’s Industry Guidance on BNPL
- Draft legislation
- Economic impacts of BNPL
Presented by Sebastian Reinehr, Senior Policy Director, Australian Finance Industry Association (AFIA)
Session 2
Navigating Current Challenges: AFCA Complaints, Financial Hardship and Recent Decisions
Chair: George Halikiotis, Partner, Piper Alderman
Professional Skills
2.00pm to 3.00pm An Insight from AFCA: Effective Complaint Management
- Overall AFCA update
- The lifecycle of a complaint made to AFCA regarding a disputed transaction
- Tips to facilitate effective complaint management
Presented by Katrina Hack, Head of Service Delivery – Banking, Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA)
Professional Skills
3.00pm to 4.00pm Implications of Customer/Consumer Financial Difficulties in the Current Climate
As increasing numbers of Australians struggle with cost of living pressures, the issue of financial difficulties and financial hardship, and the role that financial institutions play in this arena, has been highlighted in the press and in industry guidelines.
Join a review of the issues that they see consumers facing, the industry response and further improvements that need to be addressed
- Industry overview of financial hardship implications for banking and financial services industry players
- Navigating enabling access to help - What help is available? Both formal and informal assistance
- Areas for improvement in this arena
- Alternative
Facilitator: Ian Lockhart, Partner, MinterEllison; Co-author of ‘Banking and Finance’ chapter in Financial Services Loose Leaf Service
Panellists:
Neva Skilton, Senior Ombudsman, Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA)
Alexandra Kelly, Director of Casework, Financial Rights Legal Centre
Steve Blinkhorn, Director Legal Affairs, Australian Banking Association (ABA)
Peter White AM, Managing Director, Finance Brokers Association of Australasia (FBAA)
4.00pm to 4.15pm Afternoon Break
4.15pm to 5.15pm Implications of the Most Recent Cases Affecting the Credit
- Examine the implications of recent banking and financial services cases and decisions
Presented by
Presenters
Andrea Beatty
Andrea specialises in financial services, banking and corporate law. Andrea brings legal capability and insight into regulatory matters, corporate governance, compliance and risk management. She assists her clients to adapt to the changing regulatory landscape to ensure they meet the expectations of their customers and shareholders and regulators. Andrea’s expertise extends to designing and conducting a broad range of financial services training for financial services providers, their senior executives and responsible managers, legal & compliance officers, consumer advocates and lawyers. Andrea advises domestic and foreign institutions on acquiring financial services and credit licences and exemptions. She specialises in advising on structuring and establishing financial services and credit businesses including licence obligations, drafting plain English documents, procedures, systems audits and online web application processes. She also advises on regulatory compliance projects and audits, regulatory enforcement defences, and regulator investigations and disputes. Andrea’s experience includes advising clients on financial products and channels, including FinTech solutions, peer to peer lending platforms, crowd funding, payment systems, crypto currency, reward programs, gift cards and financial services acquisitions, disposals and alliances. Andrea also has in-depth knowledge of privacy laws and regularly advises clients on data and privacy security and breach remediation. Andrea regularly develops and conducts independent reviews of AML/CTF programs. Andrea regularly conducts training programs and full day workshops for clients including Australian Credit Licence and Australian Financial Services Licence compulsory responsible managers training, privacy training, regulatory updates and “Back to Basics” credit law, privacy, anti-money laundering and other training workshops. Andrea is widely published and her authorships include 7 editions of the leading consumer law text ‘Annotated National Credit Code’ the most recent edition published on 22 December 2003 by LexisNexis, the ‘Australia’ chapters in the ‘Consumer Finance Law Review’ and the ‘Banking Regulation Review‘ (The Law Reviews, Law Business Research Ltd UK). Andrea is also a member of numerous financial services professional associations. She is the Deputy Chair of the Law Council Business Law Section Privacy Committee.
George Halikiotis
George has been providing specialist legal advice to the corporate and commercial sector for over 23 years. He has an outstanding reputation for his expertise in capital raising, restructuring, business succession planning and mergers & acquisitions. George is also highly skilled in superannuation law compliance, asset protection strategies and estate planning. His practice has evolved to meet the changing needs of his clients such as boutique capital and corporate advisory firms, SME’s, financial planning practices and high net worth individuals.
Olga Ganopolsky
Olga Ganopolsky is Macquarie Group’s General Counsel - Privacy and Data and is versed in the subject of data protection with extensive experience in detailed privacy policy challenges, law reform and ongoing management of legal and strategic issues. Much of Olga’s work involves implementing new technologies and addressing privacy requirements in an increasingly complex co-regulatory and sometimes contentious environment. Most recently this has included work on implementations of GDPR and the reforms to Security of Critical Infrastructure Act and related regimes, artificial intelligence, CPS 234, Covid-19 related matters, the Consumer Data Right and addressing cross border issues considering the Schrems II Decision of the European Court of Justice and the newly updated Standard Contractual Clause as approved by the Commission.
Steven Klimt
Steven has been practising in the retail banking and financial services area for over 30 years. His practice covers documentation, procedures, forms and systems, and financial services regulatory issues including consumer credit, anti-money laundering. payment systems and privacy.. His clients include many of Australia's leading financial institutions, Fintechs and finance companies. Steven is a contributing author to the CCH Australian Consumer Credit Law Reporter. He has been ranked in Best Lawyers Australia in Banking and Financial Services and Regulatory Practice for many years.
Patrick Fair
Patrick Fair is the principal of Patrick Fair Associates, an Adjunct Professor at the School of Information Technology, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Built Environment at Deakin University, the Chairman of the Communications Security Reference Panel at the Communications Alliance, a member of the IoT Alliance of Australia Security Workstream Member Technical Advisory Standing Committee auDA and General Advisor to and an author of LexisNexis Practical Guidance Cybersecurity, Data Protection and Privacy.
Craig Subocz
Craig is an intellectual property and technology lawyer with expertise in all facets of IT contracting and procurement, including advising on competitive procurement processes and the preparation and negotiation of supply and service contracts, such as anything-as-a-service, agile software development, hardware supply and maintenance contracts and managed services arrangements. He has also worked with clients to develop terms of use for electronic commerce platforms. Craig is experienced in data security and information privacy matters, such as preparing privacy and credit reporting policies, employee procedures and data breach response plans, as well as delivery of privacy training. Craig has a broad knowledge of Victorian and Commonwealth privacy laws, as well as the GDPR. Craig has advised a number of clients on compliance with the mandatory data breach notification requirements under the Privacy Act, including whether a data breach is notifiable and the preparation of notifications and applications for exemption from notification requirements. As a registered trade mark attorney, he has routinely advised and represented clients in relation to intellectual property protection, commercialisation and enforcement. Craig has worked with clients to recognise and protect their valuable intellectual property assets, including identifying those assets and taking steps to protect the assets through registration (if available). He has prepared and negotiated commercialisation agreements, including licence agreements, collaboration agreements and research and development agreements.
Gordon Campbell
Gordon has been actively involved in product strategy and product development within three international software organisations, driving new capabilities from inception to market. He has extensive experience over all phases of the business solution lifecycle. As a senior industry solution director at Oracle, Gordon focused on transformation and innovation. He was responsible for all pillars of technology and applications with various executive and IT teams from companies including Westpac, NBNCo, AMP, Sydney Water, and Origin Energy. At Amdocs, Gordon worked on transformations and architecture in companies throughout Asia Pacific region. Gordon’s career began in chartered accountancy in New Zealand, and in parallel he undertook his ACA studies and later completed a CPIM, as well as leading an ISO9001 certification.
Stephen Jones MP
Stephen Jones is the Federal Member for Whitlam and Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Shadow Minister for Financial Services. Stephen was first elected to the Federal Parliament in 2010 representing the Southern Illawarra seat of Throsby. He was re-elected at the 2013 election and elected to the re-named seat of Whitlam in the 2016 election. Stephen holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Wollongong and a Bachelor of Laws degree from Macquarie University. Prior to entering the Federal Parliament he worked as a community worker for various front line disability services, youth and health services and as a lawyer with the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and as the Secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU).
Ian Lockhart
Ian is a finance partner in the Brisbane office of Minter Ellison and acts for Australian and foreign banks, credit unions and mutual banks, government and listed entities. His practice spans consumer credit, privacy, financial services, licensing, compliance with APRA prudential standards and anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing compliance. His background in corporate finance also means that he can also bring a transactional perspective to the application of regulatory compliance obligations. Ian is a current member of the Banking and Financial Services Law Committee of the Queensland Law Society and served as the chair of that committee until recently for a period of 6 years.
Neva Skilton
Neva started working at FOS in 2012 as a banking and finance case manager. In 2015, she became a team manager of one a banking and finance team. In 2018, Neva was appointed as an adjudicator in both the general insurance and banking and finance teams. In 2019, Neva became an Ombudsman with AFCA. Neva has significant experience investigating all different types of complex banking disputes, but has a particular interest in disputes relating to unauthorised transactions.
Peter White AM
Pete is the Managing Director of the FBAA, and first started as a volunteer with the FBAA in 2003. Peter’s banking and finance career spans over 45 years covering retail banking, Head of Private Banking, Associate Director of Marketing and Distribution in Investment Banking, established RAMS Home Loans first sales office in 1993, and has run mortgage management businesses and has had several broking businesses of his own. A strong and passionate advocate for industry, Peter spends a significant amount of time with regulators and government, as well as being a Registered Lobbyist in his own right, and is the leading advocate and Ambassador for Mental Health Awareness in our finance industry which he started that awareness conversation in 2016. In 2018 Peter established and is the current Global Chairman for the IMBF (International Mortgage Brokers Federation) which is a collaboration of industry associations in 6 countries and is a world's first of its kind. He also sits on the Small Business Association of Australia's Advisory Board, and is a champion and campaigner for the mental health issues & needs of parents with Special Needs Children. Peter was recognised in the 2019 Queens Birthday Honours with an “AM” Member of the Order of Australia for significant services to industry and the community. And in 2021 was awarded in the Australian Broking Awards as the ‘Industry Thought Leader of the Year’ and in 2022 ‘Wellness Advocate of the Year, then in 2022 and 2023 recognised as MPA Global Top 100 mortgage influences, and in 2024 awarded the inaugural 'YBR/Vow Appreciation Award for Services to Industry’.
Sebastian Reinehr
Sebastian Reinehr is Policy Director at the Australian Finance Industry Association (AFIA). AFIA is the only peak body representing Australia’s entire $360 billion finance industry, proudly voicing the views of our over 150 members. Sebastian manages submissions and advocacy spanning credit law, regulatory affairs, privacy and sustainability. Before joining AFIA Sebastian was a Senior Adviser to a NSW Cabinet Minister and previously served as an Adviser to the Victorian Leader of the Opposition. He has spent a decade working in public policy settings, across universities, think tanks and political offices, and has appeared as an expert witness before the Senate Economics Legislation Committee. Sebastian holds a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and Juris Doctor, both from the University of Melbourne.
Steve Blinkhorn
Steve Blinkhorn is the Director of Legal Affairs for the Australian Banking Association, based in Sydney. The ABA is an association of 20 member banks in Australia and works with government, regulators, and other stakeholders to improve public awareness and understanding of the industry’s contribution to the economy and, to ensure Australia’s banking customers continue to benefit from a stable, competitive, and accessible banking industry. Steve is primarily responsible for leading the ABA’s response to the Banking Code of Practice review, in addition to assessing competition, insolvency, and freedom of information law requirements. Steve appeared at the Parliamentary Joint Committee Inquiry on Corporate Insolvency in February 2023 and in October 2022, collaborated with Treasury and Regulators to amend the Telecommunications Act and enable the sharing of data with APRA regulated entities to enhance protections for bank customers following the Optus data breach.