ON DEMAND: Digital Law Series | Privacy Act Reforms – What is on the table

Joshua is a partner who specialises in helping banks, credit unions and other lenders and financial services providers navigate and understand the complex regulatory environment that applies to retail financial services.

Joshua regularly help clients with product development, regulatory issues and reforms, compliance audits and training, various types of product distribution, service provider and other commercial arrangements and advertising and marketing activities. Joshua also advises on banking and financial services-related disputes and litigation including mortgage enforcement, customer complaints and AFCA disputes.

In addition to Joshua’s legal qualifications, he also has formal qualifications in Information Technology.

In recent times, Joshua has advised clients in relation to the continued development of the New Payments Platform, the implementation of Comprehensive Credit Reporting, the digital execution of lending and mortgage documentation, the upcoming commencement of the Australian Design and Distribution Obligations regime and the introduction of the Consumer Data Right/Open Banking.

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 2023 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. Andrea is also a member of the Financial services and Digital commerce committees of the Law Council Business Law Section.

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.