According to data published by the Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA), Australian women and men offer strikingly similar reasons for their entry into bankruptcy. Yet a more detailed analysis of AFSA's data indicates that women and men often go bankrupt in very different social and...

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) was established in 2008 to resolve disputes between Australian consumers and financial service providers. This article outlines the role of FOS in resolving disputes under the statutory protections for Australians in financial hardship. This article also...

Special protections for Australians in financial hardship have recently been incorporated into the legal frameworks governing the consumer credit, energy, water and telecommunications sectors. These protections have the objective of enabling consumers to avoid the serious legal consequences of...

Bankruptcy has always been a source of significant stigma. The first Elizabethan statutes regarded bankruptcy as a quasi-criminal state, punishable by public shaming, imprisonment and, in some cases, death. More modern regimes have recognised that bankruptcy serves important economic objectives,...

Financial hardship occurs where a consumer takes on payment obligations under a contract but then becomes unable to meet them when they fall due. The authors present the results of a survey of financial counsellors with the aim of drawing upon the extensive work experience of the counsellors to...

The Financial Hardship Project at Melbourne Law School is the first in-depth study of the practical operation of Australia's financial hardship laws, which are designed to protect consumers suffering from financial hardship, facilitate the performance of monetary obligations, and thus forestall...

This paper examines the legal structure of securities lending in Australia, and also Europe, the United Kingdom and United States. It provides an analysis of the widely used industry documents, the Australian Master Securities Lending Agreement and the Global Master Securities Lending Agreement...

This paper examines the corporate governance implications of securities loans, in particular the impact of securities loans on shareholders' voting rights and the control of listed Australian companies. The paper considers whether the current regulatory framework for securities loans in...

This working paper is the first published output of an eighteen month (December 2014-June 2016) research project conducted by staff at the Melbourne Law School that examines enforcement and penalties regimes under legislation administered by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission...

A poor credit history can preclude an individual from obtaining loans, credit cards and even access to basic utilities. Credit repair companies claim to assist people in this situation, by deleting adverse information from their credit histories. As financial hardship becomes more widespread,...