Recommendation 1.15 – Enforceable code provisions
The law should be amended to provide:
- that ASIC’s power to approve codes of conduct extends to codes relating to all APRA-regulated institutions and ACL holders;
- that industry codes of conduct approved by ASIC may include ‘enforceable code provisions’, which are provisions in respect of which a contravention will constitute a breach of the law;
- that ASIC may take into consideration whether particular provisions of an industry code of conduct have been designated as ‘enforceable code provisions’ in determining whether to approve a code;
- for remedies, modelled on those now set out in Part VI of the Competition and Consumer Act, for breach of an ‘enforceable code provision’; and
- for the establishment and imposition of mandatory financial services industry codes
Recommendation 1.16 – 2019 Banking Code
In respect of the Banking Code that ASIC approved in 2018, the ABA and ASIC should take all necessary steps to have the provisions that govern the terms of the contract made or to be made between the bank and the customer or guarantor designated as ‘enforceable code provisions’