Risk Solutions

The end of March is the time of year when AUSTRAC annual compliance reports are due in from reporting entities. Getting your report ready is not always a straightforward task, especially if your Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (AML/CTF) program needs work.

Hiring new staff or purchasing inventory. Expanding your product line or ramping up your marketing. There are many different paths to small business growth. Figuring out which direction to take comes down to how well you plan. Building a vision of what you want to achieve and what success means to you will make it easier to get started. Here are six planning strategies that will help take your business to the next level.

Some of your customers might understand the importance of the PPSR, but others may be confused by it, or unaware of its existence. Where your customer sits on this sliding scale is more important to your business than you might think. We spoke to Cheryl O’Brien from Fletcher Building Limited to find out the benefits of educating customers about the PPSR and how to go about doing it.

Statistics released by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC)1  shows that despite a drop in company insolvencies in December 2019, there were still 5% more insolvency appointments in Australia for the year ended December 2019.

In NSW, insolvency appointments were up 16% annually, and Victoria observed an annual increase of 12%1 . These increases were primarily driven from the construction sector, which experienced an annual increase of 18%2 of companies closing down (EXADs3).
 

You’ve heard the horror stories about cybercrime and the damage it can inflict. Now you want to know what to do. What’s the best way to protect your business from a cyberattack?

Preparedness is your best defence, advises Darren Hopkins, a digital forensics expert and Partner at McGrathNicol.

A materials handling company believed they were doing the right thing. They protected their interests in the company's valuable equipment assets by registering on the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR).

Then two customers went broke, and administrators were appointed. They found out the hard way their PPS registrations were not up to scratch when they had great difficulties recovering their rented equipment.

The new Design and Distribution Obligations (DDO) for financial and credit products comes into force by the 5th of October 2021 and requires you to publicly document and justify why a product is consistent with the likely objectives, financial situation and needs of a class of consumers.

In the turmoil that ensues from a data breach, a necessary decision is what to do about notifying customers. The Federal Government’s Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) scheme makes it clear that businesses have the responsibility to protect their customers in the aftermath of a cyberattack.

Where there’s money up for grabs, there’s the possibility of crime, and the property market is no exception. The vast sums of money associated with home sales make the conveyancing industry an ideal hunting ground for cybercriminals. With numerous fraud opportunities available pre-sale and post-sale, fraudsters are using increasingly sophisticated methods to intercept property fund payments, steal identities, forge documents and attack computer systems.

The ramifications are serious if a registration lapses due to non-renewal. A lapsed registration cannot be restored. It will simply disappear, never to be seen again. If you don’t have a warning system that notifies you of approaching expiries, you may not even be aware that it has gone.