Finan­cial Services

Our team pos­sess­es the indus­try exper­tise, resources and strong com­mer­cial acu­men to pro­vide you with prac­ti­cal val­ue for mon­ey legal solutions 

We under­stand the industry’s dri­vers and oper­a­tions and rep­re­sent a vari­ety of enti­ties in the bank­ing and finan­cial ser­vices sec­tor, includ­ing finan­cial insti­tu­tions, alter­na­tive financiers, fund trustees, whole­sale and retail invest­ment trusts, trustees & cus­to­di­ans, pri­vate lenders, and finan­cial plan­ning groups. 

Our team serves major domes­tic and inter­na­tion­al clients and offers com­pli­ance, trans­ac­tion­al, struc­tur­al, and enforce­ment advice for lenders and investors.

We spe­cialise in pro­vid­ing com­pre­hen­sive legal guid­ance to help with the com­plex­i­ties of busi­ness financ­ing, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the areas of asset-based lend­ing and cash flow financ­ing. Both cash flow and asset-based lend­ing have their advan­tages and are suit­able for dif­fer­ent types of busi­ness­es. Under­stand­ing the nuances of each can help you make an informed deci­sion about which type of financ­ing is best for your business.

Use­ful links:

• Aus­tralian Finance Indus­try Association
• Aus­tralian Pru­den­tial Reg­u­la­tion Authority
• Australia’s pru­den­tial super­vi­sor, respon­si­ble Association
• The Cor­po­ra­tions Act 2001 (Cth) 
• Bank­ing Act 1959 (Cth)
• Bank­ing Reg­u­la­tions 1966 (Cth)
• Aus­tralian Pru­den­tial Reg­u­la­tion Author­i­ty Act 1998 (Cth)
• Aus­tralian Secu­ri­ties and Invest­ments Com­mis­sion Act 2001 (Cth)
• Finan­cial Ser­vices Reform Act 2001 (Cth) 
• Finan­cial Sec­tor (Share­hold­ings) Act 1998 (Cth)
• Nation­al Con­sumer Cred­it Pro­tec­tion Act 2010 (Cth)
• Anti-Mon­ey Laun­der­ing and Counter-Ter­ror­ism Financ­ing Act 2006 (Cth) 
• State fair trad­ing and con­sumer pro­tec­tion acts
• Per­son­al Prop­er­ty Secu­ri­ties Act 2009 (Cth)

In addi­tion to leg­is­la­tion, both ASIC and APRA issue reg­u­la­to­ry and pol­i­cy state­ments, as well as infor­ma­tion sheets that pro­vide guid­ance to reg­u­lat­ed enti­ties on how leg­is­la­tion applies and should be inter­pret­ed. In par­tic­u­lar, ASIC focus­es on the Cor­po­ra­tions Act and gives fre­quent updates to pro­vide prac­ti­cal guid­ance on its expec­ta­tions and pol­i­cy objec­tives with respect to com­pli­ance with the law.

No mat­ter how rou­tine or com­plex the busi­ness issues you face, Mer­i­tas’ net­work of law firms is with you every step of the way. Mar­ket-lead­ing firms offer a full range of legal ser­vices, which enable you to do busi­ness any­where. Wise coun­sel and prac­ti­cal solu­tions are just a phone call or e‑mail away. Dis­cov­er the breadth and depth of the prac­tice and indus­try sec­tor capa­bil­i­ties avail­able to you through Meritas.

• Mer­i­tas Prac­tice + Indus­try Sectors