(20 April 2018 – Australia) In light of the misconduct allegations being brought to light at the Royal Commission the government has proposed increasing the highest-penalty criminal offences under the Corporations Act.
The government said it would increase penalties, including fines and maximum jail terms, and make more corporate law violations ‘civil penalties’.
Some of the nation’s leading corporations law academics said the penalties for corporate misconduct should have been strengthened years ago however they will not be effective until the regulator takes a stronger stance and takes more cases to court.
While Australian penalties have been substantially increased with the new fines for breaching the Corporations Act capped at $210 million, in the UK fines are uncapped and there were reports in the US that Wells Fargo would be hit with a US$1 billion fine for selling unnecessary products to its customers.