Professor Pamela Hanrahan, Glasgow Law Fellow - 3 September
Published: 5 September 2019
On 3 September Professor Pamela Hanrahan presented a talk on “At the limits of law: Regulating for non-financial risk in the aftermath of Australia's Banking Royal Commission”
On 3 September 2019 our Visiting Fellow, Professor Pamela Hanrahan of UNSW Business School presented a talk on “At the limits of law: Regulating for non-financial risk in the aftermath of Australia's Banking Royal Commission”
Throughout 2018, Australia was captivated by the proceedings of a Royal Commission into misconduct in the banking, superannuation and financial services industry, presided over by former Justice of the High Court of Australia Kenneth Hayne AC QC. Financially, Australian banks are 'unquestionably strong'. But the failure by Australia's most prominent financial institutions to manage adequately the non-financial risks in their businesses - including operational, legal and regulatory risk - caused significant harm to some retail customers, to the credibility of regulators and to public trust in major institutions. The Commissioner's final report, delivered in February 2019, contains 76 recommendations for reform. But the lingering question, particularly for regulators, is: can the problem be fixed by more or better law? Or are we at the limits of law?
Dr Pamela Hanrahan is an Australian lawyer, legal academic and author who specialises in corporate law, corporate governance, financial services law, data governance and business ethics. She is Professor of Commercial Law and Regulation at the UNSW Business School Sydney, a Senior Fellow of the Melbourne Law School, a member of the Centre for Law Markets and Regulation at UNSW, an associate of the Centre for Corporate Law and Securities Regulation at the University of Melbourne, a member of the Society of Investment Law (USA), a Fellow of FINSIA and founding director of the Cybersecurity and Data Governance Research Network at UNSW. Pamela is a member of the Executive Board of the Business Law Section of the Law Council of Australia, a member of the National Corporate Governance Committee of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and a non-executive director of Landcom. In 2010-11 she was ASIC’s Regional Commissioner for Queensland and in 2013-15 served as the Registrar of Community Housing for NSW. In 2016-17 Pamela was an appointed member of the ASIC Enforcement Review Taskforce and in 2018 she was an adviser to the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry.
First published: 5 September 2019