Compliance & Ethics

The SEC has proposed rescinding Exchange Act Rule 14a-8, which would end the federal framework governing shareholder proposals and defer to State law and company governing documents. It would also amend Rule 14a-4 to broaden the circumstances in which companies may use discretionary voting authority on proposals not included in their proxy materials. Compliance and corporate governance teams should assess the potential effect on shareholder engagement, proxy processes, and legal risk.

ASIC's Form 379 (version dated 3 March 2023) lets eligible individuals suppress their usual residential address on the public register by substituting an alternative address. Compliance teams must track strict change-notification deadlines and use the correct lodgement channel, because a misfiled change can expose a protected address publicly. Note that the item is labeled a press release but is a prescribed form with its guide, not a new rule or policy change.

Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) published the agenda and materials for the first meeting of its Working Group on the ideal way to provide funding to growing companies. The document is procedural and imposes no new obligations. It does signal early policy thinking on growth-company financing, including the role of banks, which compliance teams should monitor. Note a date discrepancy: the metadata lists 2026-09-16, while the content states the meeting was held September 16, 2020.

ASIC has published Form 5114, which responsible entities of registered schemes use to notify ASIC of a change in compliance plan auditor under s601HI of the Corporations Act 2001. The notice must be lodged as soon as practicable after the change, and it follows a prior ASIC consent process (Forms 5112 and 5113) in cases of resignation or removal. Compliance teams should confirm that auditor transition procedures cover consent, disclosure, and lodgement steps.

ASIC's Form 505 and its accompanying guide set out how appointments and cessations of external administrators, controllers, scheme administrators, and restructuring practitioners must be notified, including strict lodgement periods. The form is dated 29 April 2021 but is listed here with a 2026-09-15 date, so teams should confirm whether it has been reissued or changed. Missed deadlines trigger late fees, and incomplete forms risk rejection. This matters for institutions that act as secured creditors, appoint controllers, or work with insolvency practitioners.

The ECB, through AMI-SeCo, has asked Swift to synchronize its deferred SR 2026 securities message upgrade with the TARGET Services June 2027 release. The ECB concluded that Swift's currently planned Q1 2027 deployment could severely disrupt testing for the T+1 changes in that release. Compliance and operations teams should expect possible timeline shifts and prepare for uncertainty until Swift confirms its final date.

AMLA Executive Board Member Rikke-Louise Petersen used a keynote at the Nordic Financial Crime & Sanctions Forum to preview how risk analysis, financial intelligence, and supervision will be integrated at the European level. Two milestones stand out: the first joint FIU analysis exercise expected toward the end of 2026, and the information-sharing partnerships that Article 75 of the AML Regulation will enable from July 2027. Compliance teams should treat the speech as an early signal of supervisory priorities and data expectations.