As of Wednesday 12th March, the way your credit history is recorded has changed. Here’s how, in a nutshell: 1. You will have a mark against your credit history if you pay a loan or credit card bill more than 5 days after the due date. What’s more, if you’ve paid one of those bills 5 days late anytime since […]

The Federal Government is poised to introduce sweeping changes to the rules that protect investors from unscrupulous financial planners. But these proposed amendments to the Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) reforms have drawn criticism from consumer groups, industry superannuation funds and the federal opposition, who argue the interests of mum and dad investors are being sacrificed to protect big banks […]

Beef up consumer protection in the finance industry. Ban banks from wealth management activities. Make product disclosure statements less confusing. These are some of the messages from top economists to David Murray, the former bank boss who is now in charge of the Abbott Government inquiry into Australia’s financial system. Fairfax Media’s BusinessDay asked a panel of experts to nominate […]

Should super funds be allowed to spend members’ money on publishing a daily newspaper? A group of industry super funds says yes: in recent months they’ve launched The New Daily, a news website edited by former News Corp Australia and Fairfax Media executive Bruce Guthrie (who famously sued his former employer for six figures when sacked as editor of the Herald Sun newspaper). […]